A Practicing Blind Physician
By Cordes, Tim; Braille Monitor, Vol. 53, No. 10Publication Date: November 2010
Article describes the workday of a blind physician and the tools and techniques he uses to access patient information, examine patients, and perform medical procedures. The physician, a resident training to become a psychiatrist, relates how he completed medical school coursework with the aid of Braille and computer access technology, the latter of which he sometimes had to write himself, such as software that describes proteins through sound. Raised line drawings were used to describe cellular concepts and explain physiological relationships such as curves and charts. Patients’ medical records at the hospital where he trains are electronic and therefore accessible with screen readers. An Opticon scanner, which he originally used for line spectra in organic chemistry, enables him to interpret electrocardiograms. He also describes intubating a patient during a surgical procedure using a tool called a Fast Track as a scaffold for the breathing tube, which he inserted with the aid of musical tones played on the anesthesia monitors, indicating the carbon dioxide level in the tube, to guide him through the trachea. He also reports finding his way through the hospital complex with the aid of a white cane or a guide dog.
Published by: National Federation of the Blind (Website:http://www.nfb.org)
Link to text: http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm10/bm1010/bm101008.htm
Link to audio: https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Audio/Braille_Monitor/2010/November/08_A_Practicing_Blind_Physician.mp3
