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Air traffic control, which is
responsible for organizing the safe movement of our crowded airlines, depends on
a significant amount of computer support. As flying speeds increase, control
decisions have to be taken more quickly.
This also applies to the pilot who
has to react not only to instructions relayed to him from traffic control, but
also to changing situations during flight (variations in atmospheric pressure,
wind speed and direction). Various instruments, dials and meters indicate the
state of the flight and the current weather conditions. These provide the pilot
and the flight engineer with the information they need to control the scan the
instruments and to assimilate the information, and time can be critically
precious at the speed at which the plans is flying. Small computers, made
possible by the development of compact integrated circuits, can be installed as
part of the plane's equipment. These computers are programd to continuously
analyze data, which is relayed directed from the various instruments, and to
provide co-ordinate information to the pilot in time for human decision and
action. Control itself can also be invested in the computer so that, when
certain conditions arise, automatic corrective action is immediately taken
without the need for slower, human intervention.
Besides the many in-flight uses,
the computer plays an increasingly vital role in the training of pilots. A
flight simulator provides an exact replica or the flight deck and performance of
an aircraft, enabling the equivalent of many hours of flying to be undertaken
without leaving the ground. The computer resolves the task, monitors and
controls the pilot's action, and maintains a record of the pilot's performance.
At ground level information needs
of a busy airline are extensive. Computers are used for the efficient handling
of seat reservations, through schedules, time-tables, tariffs, cargo maintenance
schedules, personnel records, accounting and stock control. Large scale air
travel has developed quickly in recent years and computers have helped to make a
very reliable and safe from of transport.
Computer controlled seat
reservations brings benefit to customers and to the airlines. It is an economic
necessity that airlines operate as near to capacity as possible. To avoid
over-booking, a complete list of all bookings needs to be maintained and be
available for immediate interrogation. This is achieved by using communication
networks covering whole continents, which link the booking offices to a large
computer system working in real time. Communication between continents is
established by using trans-oceanic cables and satellites. A travel agent is able
to find out the current status of any flight and can book handled by computers
in regional centers. The computer is also playing an increasingly prominent part
in the organization and running of the public health and the social services, in
the maintenance of low and order, and as an aid to education.
Computerized telephone exchange
handles an ever-increasing volume of calls. They do so more quickly and with
less likelihood of error than would otherwise be possible, and they can be
linked up to other networks/exchanges for wider, prompt use. Cross-country, and
even overseas, calls which previously meant a slow link-up through several
switchboards and/or operators can now be made directly and quickly. By way of
satellites calls can also be transmitted at faster speeds than through
conventional networks. The computer can also maintain a log of calls per
subsequent billing.
The uses of the computer in the
medical field are partly analogous to applications in business and industry. We
find for example, the computer being increasingly used in hospital
administration for such tasks as maintaining inventories of drugs, surgical
equipments and linen; for payroll; hospital accounting; and for bed allocation.
Information on the condition of patients, details of tests and clinical reports
may be stored n a computer system. This combined information can be used to
provide ward and patient summary reports and, where a terminal has been
installed for these of the ward nursing staff, the system can provide
instructions are reminders concerning the care of individual patients.
In intensive care units the
computer can be used to monitor a patient's condition. Scanning instruments
attached to the patients are linked on-line to the system so that nursing staff
cane be notified as the patient's condition charges. The computer may print out
or display a log of the patient's condition, drawing attention to measurements
that fall outside the critical limits set by the doctor, or the computer itself
may trigger directly the necessary corrective action.
In some clinics the computer is
used albeit in an experimental way to interview patients before or after they
see a doctor in order to collect information for the patient's records and even
to assist with the diagnostic process. It is suggested that patients are more
relaxed, and honest and frank with their replies when faced with an impersonal
machine.
The computer may assist in medical
diagnosis, for example programs exist which can carry out electro-cardiogram
analysis to determine both normal and abnormal heart conditions. The computer
system can act as a vast encyclopedia of medical knowledge, providing the doctor
with access to an ever increasing quantity of information which he could not
possibly hope to carry in his head. Diagnosis itself is a complex process, and
the symptoms of a disease are not consistent in all patients. The consultant
makes a diagnosis on the basis of information he has gleaned from the patient's
condition. He can then carry out a dialogue with the computer system, testing
his hypotheses) perhaps referencing other recorded cases) until he is satisfied
that his diagnosis is correct. The computer can help, but the experience of the
consultant remains all important.
The computer may assist in
prescribing the correct dosage and pattern of treatment, for example, in
treating cancer by radiotherapy where it is vital that the correct dosage of
radium is administrated and only to the exact area required. Computers are being
used to make this delicate calculation. Using data provided by the consultant,
the computer produces a treatment timetable complete with the calculated dosage
for the individual patient.
The computer has an important part
of play in medical research and in the teaching of doctors and nursing staff.
The ability that a computer system has to retain information on a large scale
means that detailed records of case histories of particular illnesses can be
available for scrutiny in sufficient quantities to assist medical research.
Models' can be constructed in the computer system to simulate the behavior of
various parts of the body, for example, the lungs and the heart. It is also
possible to use computer programs to test the effect that a form of treatment
might have on a patient before it is administered.
These different medical
applications are in various stages of development. Some of the ideas we have
discussed are not yet in widespread use, but enough has been achieved to
indicate that the potential benefit of the computer, to both patients and to an
understaffed medical profession, is considerable.
