Wireless wee detectors hit Aussie grundies

Technology: a solution in search of a problem - again

This is likely to follow the trajectory of many other technology-led 'advances' in patient care.

20 years ago PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy - through a tube into the stomach) feeding was the hospital nutritionists' great new hope.

Now it's recognised that a) iPEG feeding is not indicated in many cases where it previously would have been urged, and b) it can actually diminish the quality of care a patient receives, because the attention of nursing staff can easily become focused on reading signals from the machine providing the feeding, rather than attending to the patient.

But until those lessons were learned, an army of medics and nutritionists wielding PEG equipment were convinced that what many of their patients needed most was to have it plugged into them.

In the less medicalised environment of a care home, which relies enormously upon the sensitivity of care staff to subtle signals from people who often can't express their needs at all, this could become a kind of barrier masquerading as convenience, and could be entirely at odds with the interests of those receiving care.

There are other uses too.

I was trying to find a cheap methane detector as a present for a friend who just had a baby but I can't find one without a very loud and annoying screamer which will only duplicate what the kid will be doing anyway soon enough.

Does that make them...

Digital dribble detecting drawers? Cordless crap checking knickers?