Bed-bound surfing
Bedside terminals on retractable arms, giving access to telephone, radio and TV, have been a feature of many UK hospitals in recent years. Now the original Patientline 1.0 terminals are giving way to a new generation of devices that include Internet and e-mail access. Version 2.0 has just been installed in seven hospital trusts across the UK. Patients or their visitors can purchase cards giving a certain amount of access time to TV and Internet.

Considering that the average age of patients in many acute wards can be quite high - implying less familiarity with computer applications - and that in-patients can often be suffering from a variety of conditions that limit their movement or precision, for example, it would be interesting to know what if any usability studies had been done on the terminals in question, or similar terminals elsewhere. And will get patients take longer to get better when they're spending more and more time in bed, surfing the Internet?