The Curse of Tutankhamen

Carefully, delicately, the 3,300-year-old remains of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen were removed from their sarcophagus earlier this year to undergo a computerized tomography (CT) scan. Taken to the Valley of the Kings, Egypt, where a trailer housed a mobile CT system, King Tut was prepared to undergo testing that would finally prove or challenge the presumption that the teenage king was murdered.

I imagine the room was hushed in anticipation as the ancient ruler was placed into the scanner.

And then … nothing.

The computer went down. Can you imagine the plight of the responsible operators, directors, managers, curator, the press?

What’s that help line number again?

We’ve all been there—in the middle of buying equipment online or writing a lengthy email. Is there anything more frustrating, maddening, or even—sometimes—terrifying to experience than a crash, blank screen, or inexplicable error message during a crucial moment? I imagine there were some tense technicians in that trailer. For 2 hours, King Tut reportedly lay there waiting to be scanned while a technologist undoubtedly worked furiously to get the computer back up and running.

Of course, King Tut could wait—what’s 2 hours when you’ve waited 3,300 years? But when the patient is a live person and a piece of computerized equipment goes down, physicians and equipment operators may be a little less tolerant. Their expectations are high, and who can blame them?

Computerized equipment manufacturers promise us the moon and swear to get us to it at light speed. When that equipment malfunctions, it’s not always easy to get the necessary assistance. (Read this month’s Soapbox column for information on how to better navigate help lines.)

In hospitals, where the distinction between the responsibilities of the biomed and information technology departments continues to blur, speed is one area where biomeds may have the advantage. IT specialists may not yet have as much experience dealing with equipment failures in real time. When a printer fails and IT is called, no one’s life is at stake. Biomeds have decades of on-call 24x7 experience. When a laser fails during surgery, there is no later.

“I’ve actually crawled under the drapes [of the operating table/room] to fix something while the surgeon waits,” said Patrick Lynch, CBET, CCE, MBA, director of biomedical engineering at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, at a presentation during the Association

for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation conference last month. Lynch, like some others, says that IT departments often lack the immediate, 24-hour availability that biomed departments possess.

Nevertheless, IT is an important part of the new health care model. IT professionals need you, and you need them—lest the curse of Tutankhamen strike at your hospital.

kstephens@ascendmedia.com