Don't place all your trust in machines

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7423.1084

BMJ 2003;327:1084 (8 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7423.1084

Filler

A memorable patient

Don't place all your trust in machines

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

While attending a post-take x ray meeting as an orthopaedicsenior house officer, I presented my sixth femoral neck fractureof the night. "Mrs X is a an elderly lady from a residentialhome, with left ventricular failure and advanced dementia. Shewas found on the floor in her room in the early hours of thismorning, unable to weight bear. Plain radiographs show she hassustained an undisplaced subcapital fractured neck of femuron the right," I said as I flashed the radiograph up onto thescreens.

My audience was quick to point out that the radiograph clearlyshowed a left sided injury, with the right side being normal.My consultant asked the on-call registrar, who couldn't rememberthe side, but the radiographer present in the meeting was eagerto assert that, with the advent of digital imaging, "the lateralitymarker is placed on the radiograph by the computer . . . [Full text of this article]

C A Willis-Owen, senior house officer, paediatric surgery

John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford