Today I have been at the hospital for visiting a friend of mine. At the neighbor’s bed an old lady seemed to sleep, but not that deep and rather in a unquiet way. In the room I realized a lot of interesting looking technology at the right and the left, digital measuring tools of each and any data, some also monstrous machines doing fantastic things. Well, I am not a doctor, but it’ s impressive to see that all. The regular ping ping of one of the monitors had a kind of tranquilizer function, I thought.

I remember when – about many years ago – I spent several weeks in hospital due to a broken leg. Well, it was indeed a different time. No Wifi, no digitalized data, no automatic blood pressure monitoring, no ringing mobile from the corridor, no monitor sound.

I am happy that nowadays all these tools exist. Don’t get me wrong. There are so many good things about it, better monitoring, better analysis, better prevention, better medication…

But the highlight this afternoon was the nurse who entered the room, had a short look at the old lady, asked if everything was fine, put her hand for some seconds on her shoulder, then took two empty cups and left. It seemed that the lady could sleep better afterwards.

My friend told me that a curtain at the window was missing and that the lights from outside disturbed him. And a small lamp at his bed would have been a fantastic idea. Things I had missed already ages before, as well.

Maybe – from time to time – we should have just a few minutes and interrupt our digital invention and innovation search. And come back to the reality moment of our patients. It could be so easy to help with certain issues. Or maybe a kind of augmented reality technology will fulfill these requirements in some years, who knows …