Gone with the wind: Tubes are whisking samples across hospital

When I first came across this article I was all ready to blast the medical profession as being hopelessly stuck in the past, unwilling to upgrade to modern record keeping. Then when I read it I was pleasantly surprised. Stanford has combined a century old technology with modern digital technology to provide a pretty remarkable result.

Every day, 7,000 times a day, Stanford Hospital staff turn to pneumatic tubes, cutting-edge technology in the 19th century, for a transport network that the Internet and all the latest Silicon Valley wizardry can’t match:

via Gone with the wind: Tubes are whisking samples across hospital – Office of Communications & Public Affairs – Stanford University School of Medicine.

by: Larry Emmott at January 12, 2010.