Hospitals and doctors’ offices, hoping to curb medical error, have invested heavily to put computers, smartphones and other devices into the hands of medical staff for instant access to patient data, drug information and case studies.

But like many cures, this solution has come with an unintended side effect: doctors and nurses can be focused on the screen and not the patient, even during moments of critical care. And they are not always doing work; examples include a neurosurgeon making personal calls during an operation, a nurse checking airfares during surgery and a poll showing that half of technicians running bypass machines had admitted texting during a procedure.

Over at the New York Times, an article about the distractions iPads and iPhones and other devices can cause for medical staff. Hard to laugh this one off, as plenty of evidence is offered, but I've got to say I trust doctors to do what they're supposed to be doing and believe that they have the sense to stay focused. Sort of like the current move to ban all cell phone use by drivers. There's plenty of distractions for a driver besides a phone, and we won't automatically be safer just because the phones are supposed to be eliminated.