????手機(jī)出現(xiàn)之前，尋呼機(jī)簡(jiǎn)直可謂是一項(xiàng)神奇的發(fā)明。要想與某人聯(lián)系，人們只需呼叫這個(gè)人的號(hào)碼，輸入自己的聯(lián)系信息，然后點(diǎn)擊井號(hào)鍵發(fā)送。尋呼機(jī)的主人在聽(tīng)到嗶嗶的提示音后，就會(huì)給你回電。當(dāng)然，手機(jī)的出現(xiàn)使得尋呼機(jī)基本退出了歷史舞臺(tái)。

????但有一個(gè)例外，在醫(yī)療行業(yè)，尋呼機(jī)仍然在蓬勃發(fā)展。沒(méi)錯(cuò)，許多醫(yī)生和護(hù)士仍然隨身攜帶尋呼機(jī)，不論他們是否帶著智能手機(jī)。這個(gè)現(xiàn)象很奇怪，因?yàn)獒t(yī)療行業(yè)向來(lái)以使用尖端藥品和精密儀器挽救生命為榮。而就通訊方式而言，許多醫(yī)療行業(yè)從業(yè)者還停留在上世紀(jì)90年代。

????原因是多方面的。Frost＆Sullivan分析師羅納德?格魯婭稱(chēng)：“醫(yī)生們都戀舊?！辈贿^(guò)，格魯婭也表示，許多醫(yī)院沿用過(guò)時(shí)的技術(shù)是為了省錢(qián)。為員工配備智能手機(jī)，空曠的醫(yī)療建筑內(nèi)安裝保障手機(jī)服務(wù)的技術(shù)，這些要花不少錢(qián)。

????尋呼機(jī)在1994年達(dá)到頂峰，當(dāng)時(shí)尋呼機(jī)的保有量達(dá)到了6,100萬(wàn)部。據(jù)格魯婭稱(chēng)，這個(gè)數(shù)字隨后縮減到今天的五、六百萬(wàn)部。這是他根據(jù)自身經(jīng)驗(yàn)做出的估計(jì)。Frost & Sullivan公司已于2006年正式停止追蹤尋呼機(jī)市場(chǎng)，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)市場(chǎng)已經(jīng)變得無(wú)關(guān)緊要。

????雖然尋呼機(jī)早已風(fēng)光不在，但其實(shí)這種通訊工具還是有不少優(yōu)點(diǎn)。它們體積小、重量輕，很適合塞進(jìn)口袋或者別在皮帶上；而且也無(wú)需充電，只用更換干電池即可。不過(guò)，方便是相對(duì)的。一個(gè)顯而易見(jiàn)的不足是，尋呼機(jī)沒(méi)有電話簿。用戶(hù)無(wú)法判斷是誰(shuí)在尋呼自己，除非發(fā)送方在信息中附上姓名。目前似乎沒(méi)人打算改善這一點(diǎn)。

????低效的尋呼機(jī)帶來(lái)了高昂的代價(jià)。技術(shù)研究機(jī)構(gòu)波耐蒙研究所（Ponemon Institute）最近的調(diào)查顯示，由于尋呼機(jī)及其它過(guò)時(shí)通訊技術(shù)，美國(guó)醫(yī)院每年蒙受83億美元損失，而且病人辦理出院手續(xù)的時(shí)間也大為增加。波耐蒙研究所調(diào)查了來(lái)自577所醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)的醫(yī)護(hù)人員，發(fā)現(xiàn)醫(yī)生、護(hù)士及其它醫(yī)療工作者每天會(huì)浪費(fèi)45分鐘在低效的通訊系統(tǒng)上。

????調(diào)查還發(fā)現(xiàn)，病人辦理出院手續(xù)的平均時(shí)間長(zhǎng)達(dá)101分鐘，大大高于預(yù)期。大部分受訪者表示，如果使用安全短信，醫(yī)院有望把這個(gè)時(shí)間縮短一半。

????不過(guò)，像大多數(shù)調(diào)查報(bào)告一樣，我們同樣應(yīng)該對(duì)這份報(bào)告持保留態(tài)度。經(jīng)濟(jì)損失是從少量調(diào)查樣本中推算出的。而且，調(diào)查由Imprivata公司資助，后者開(kāi)發(fā)了管理軟件，可供醫(yī)院同時(shí)在桌面和移動(dòng)平臺(tái)訪問(wèn)病人病歷。所以，這份調(diào)查完全有可能是夸大事實(shí)，以達(dá)到推動(dòng)Imprivata軟件銷(xiāo)售的目的。

????Pagers seemed like a fabulous invention in the years before mobile phones. To reach someone, all you had to do was call their number, enter your contact information, and hit the pound sign to send. The pager's owner, alerted by a symphony of beeping, would then return the call. Mobile phones, of course, eventually drove the technology to near-extinction.

????But pagers, in fact, continue to thrive with one critical constituency: the medical industry. Yes, many doctors and nurses still carry pagers instead of -- or in addition to -- smartphones. It is an odd reality for a field that otherwise prides itself on using cutting-edge medicine and sophisticated machinery to save lives. For communication, at least, many people in the medical field are stuck in the 1990s.

????The reasons are many. "Doctors are creatures of habit," says Ronald Gruia, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan. But he also argues that many hospitals hang onto the outdated technology to save money. Equipping staff with smartphones and installing technology to guarantee cell phone service inside cavernous medical buildings is expensive.

????Pagers reached their zenith in 1994 when there were over 61 million in use. Their numbers have since dwindled to around five or six million today, according to Gruia. His estimate is an educated guess. Officially, Frost & Sullivan stopped tracking the pager market in 2006 because of, well, its irrelevance.

????Despite their obsolescence, pagers do have some advantages. They're small and light enough to carry in a pocket or on a belt. They also don't need to be charged. Instead, you just pop in new batteries. Convenience is a relative term, however. Pagers have no address book, for example. They also lack a way to easily identify those who page you unless the sender includes a name in the message. And nobody is working to improve them.

????Such inefficiency comes at a price. Pagers and other outdated communications systems cost hospitals $8.3 billion annually in lost productivity and increased patient discharge times, according to a recent survey by the Ponemon Institute, a technology research organization. The survey, based on responses from 577 healthcare professionals, found that doctors, nurses, and others in the health care field waste around 45 minutes daily because of inefficient communications systems.

????Additionally, hospitals take longer to discharge patients -- 101 minutes, on average -- than otherwise necessary, the survey found. By using secure text messaging, hospitals could cut that time by half, most of the respondents said.

????Granted, the survey, like many of its kind, should be taken with a grain of salt. The financial losses are extrapolated from a relatively small sample of respondents. Furthermore, the survey was paid for by Imprivata, a company that provides hospitals with software for accessing patient files from both computers and mobile devices. There's an obvious incentive to make the problem seem bigger than it really is to drum up business.