An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
August 17th, 2012
Beeper, An Enthusiastic Farewell!
August 17, 2012, is the first day in over 25 years that I left for work without clipping a beeper to my belt.
Yes, our hospital now offers paging through cell phones. Eureka!
As I’ve written before, it was a long time coming. Here are some advantages:
- Spares the embarrassment of wearing a circa-1980s device around non-MD colleagues.
- Portrays a more slimming profile for the fashion-conscious.
- Reduces electromagnetic waves so close to reproductive organs.
- Saves money on AA batteries.
- Diminishes landfill contamination from discarded alkaline cells.
- Decreases the number of items one risks losing, breaking, dropping in the toilet, etc.
- Sheds unfortunate association with drug dealers.
I’m sure there are more, but regardless, I was bound to be an early adopter of a non-beeper life. Yesterday, after passing in the beeper, I almost expected there to be some sort of ritual ceremony, something akin to what they just did in London at the end of the Olympics.
Here then, for posterity’s sake, is the very first page I received on my cell phone, courtesy of our Education Coordinator Margot:
For the record, the answer to my question was yes — she did get my text response in her email. Yet another benefit of chucking the one-way pager.
One Response to “Beeper, An Enthusiastic Farewell!”
Paul E. Sax, MD
Contributing Editor
NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases
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Paul,
Gave up mine earlier this year – I’d planned a steamroller ceremony but it didn’t belong to me. I remember, as an intern, how excited I was to get one. Then the drug dealers got them too. Then it became a teather / leash. Now the cell phone is the leash with a longer reach.
On a different note. I received an e-mail from a distant clinic with whom I work. One of their patients got put on a hold due to a shortage in availability of Isentress for shipment. They scrambled and got some from another of their branch stores. Wow! There is a contingency issue for HIV clinicians! Gonna result in hoarding.