Emergency Sickbay Program?

[dub]

If we have a holographic doctor, then why don't starships, space stations, etc. reserve a holodeck specifically as a secondary sickbay? Or at least have an "emergency sickbay" program ready on the holodeck, that way if there are multiple injuries you can have how ever many doctors and nurses, beds and instruments you need ready in the holodeck. All you need is a medical supply closet outside the holodeck (or inside if they could make that work).

Well I know why - it would be less dramatic for TV! Haha...but anyway, just a thought.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

You can't really have a full medical staff of holograms (even for emergencies) as they take up a lot of space in the computer core, so I doubt most ships could handle any more than just one.

I suspect that ships responding to medical emergencies, which are equipped with large holodecks, would have a programme they could run to make the space either into a triage facility or evacuation centre--since they won't be used during a crisis anyways.

 

[T'Girl]

I suspect that ships responding to medical emergencies, which are equipped with large holodecks, would have a programme they could run to make the space either into a triage facility or evacuation centre.

I wonder how far you could go with that. I've noticed that the Voyager's EMH has to pick up a medical tricorder to scan patients, his doesn't materialize with one at his waist. So while the holodeck could manifest beds and such, could it fill the emergency facility with all the "gadgets" that a future medical center would need to operate?

For example, the big scanner above the main examination bed in TNG's sick bay, in a holodeck would that still be a scanner, or just another part of the ceiling?

 

[TheRoyalFamily]

You can't really have a full medical staff of holograms (even for emergencies) as they take up a lot of space in the computer core, so I doubt most ships could handle any more than just one.

Paris was able to create a whole (small) Irish village full of realistic-acting folks, with different personalities, and it was able to have multiple copies running at once. Having a single holodeck with simple nursing or triage treatment holograms, no personalities or anything, like Yar's sparing program, would be child's play (perhaps literally!).

 

[Melakon]

How large are sickbay facilities on modern warships today, where the standard crew complement is approximately 150?

If we consider starbases the equivalent of 1995 era hospitals, and the Galaxy-class ships as battleships/carriers, after adjusting for crew sizes, what would be on a vessel equivalent to Voyager?

 

[jpv2000]

You can't really have a full medical staff of holograms (even for emergencies) as they take up a lot of space in the computer core, so I doubt most ships could handle any more than just one.

I suspect that ships responding to medical emergencies, which are equipped with large holodecks, would have a programme they could run to make the space either into a triage facility or evacuation centre--since they won't be used during a crisis anyways.

Makes sense. I like this idea.

 

[R. Star]

Crusher converted the holodecks into triage facilities a few times in TNG, though I don't think she ever used holograms.

 

[austen_pierce]

I suspect that ships responding to medical emergencies, which are equipped with large holodecks, would have a programme they could run to make the space either into a triage facility or evacuation centre.

I wonder how far you could go with that. I've noticed that the Voyager's EMH has to pick up a medical tricorder to scan patients, his doesn't materialize with one at his waist. So while the holodeck could manifest beds and such, could it fill the emergency facility with all the "gadgets" that a future medical center would need to operate?

For example, the big scanner above the main examination bed in TNG's sick bay, in a holodeck would that still be a scanner, or just another part of the ceiling?

I think this is a big problem. My understanding of bolo technology is that it is force fields and optics, not replication. That's why the doctor needs to pick up equipment after he instantiates. Sure he has medical knowledge, that's programmed, but he isn't capable of running diagnostics. To answer your question, the equipment on the wall would just be wall. IMO.

Did Trek ever establish in canon whether complex equipment could even be replicated. In TNG, I thought the answer was no. So while you could holo- furnish, you still have a resource constraint with equipment.

 

[The Old Mixer]

In "The Nth Degree," Barclay goes into the holodeck and instructs the computer to create an advanced cybernetic interface with the ship.

 

[T'Girl]

Did Trek ever establish in canon whether complex equipment could even be replicated. In TNG, I thought the answer was no.

It's a interesting question. There are things a replicator can't make at all (some pharmaceuticals), and other things that can be produced, but it takes the replicator time to do so. I can't remember a replicator making say a medical tricorder, I think it could, but how long to make dozens?

We're not talking about a cup of tea.

 

[R. Star]

Did Trek ever establish in canon whether complex equipment could even be replicated. In TNG, I thought the answer was no.

It's a interesting question. There are things a replicator can't make at all (some pharmaceuticals), and other things that can be produced, but it takes the replicator time to do so. I can't remember a replicator making say a medical tricorder, I think it could, but how long to make dozens?

We're not talking about a cup of tea.

In a Matter of Perspective they created a holographic version of the science lab that blew up at the beginning. It was authentic enough to interact with the kreiger wave generator on the planet.

 

[CoveTom]

^ Yes, but they established in the dialogue that the equipment in the science lab was really nothing more than a complex series of mirrors that reflected the waves in a certain manner. Not exactly advanced scientific equipment like a tricorder.

TNG and later series did establish that holodecks use a combination of both holographic images and replicators. But the level of complexity in devices those replicators can produce is up for debate. We know, for example, that a person can eat or drink something on the holodeck because it's replicated, not a hologram. But can it make a phaser? A tricorder? Heck, a warp core? That we don't know.

 

[Timo]

You can't really have a full medical staff of holograms (even for emergencies) as they take up a lot of space in the computer core

That was only problem with the Voyager holodoctor, who was allowed to grow unhindered. Holographic nurses could be extremely simple programs compared with holographic entertainment characters, yet very useful in an emergency.

As for replicating medical instrumentation quickly, a Cardassian food replicator quickly produced a working phaser that immediately started firing in "Civil Defense". This shouldn't be a bottleneck as such, then. It's more a question of how much you want to rely on equipment and facilities generated on demand in a combat situation where your generation abilities may be compromised. And it shouldn't be difficult to simply keep equipment in stock; the holodeck-simulated sickbay crashing in the middle of a situation might not be all that fatal a failure, either, provided the patients are at least held on physical beds or stretchers rather than flickering forcefields.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In the episode where Riker is accused of murdering a scientist, the holographic recreation of his lab and equipment damaged the E-D. I think that advanced tech could be created holographically if it was programmed into the computer to recreate it from the inside out and not just as a basic facsimile.

However I would also suspect that many officers and crewmen would have emergency medical training (like how Worf was able to deliver Molly), at least enough to patch up wounds and keep someone from bleeding to death before a doctor or nurse could get to them.

 

[T'Girl]

I think that advanced tech could be created holographically if it was programmed into the computer to recreate it from the inside out and not just as a basic facsimile.

I could see advanced tech being replicated or beamed off a shelf somewhere and inserted by transporter into a holodeck creation. But I would say no to the same tech being solely composed of textured forcefields and such.

 

[Tom]

Wesley was still wet after exiting the holodeck in 'Encounter at Farpoint' so clearly the water was replicated. I agree that very basic things and anything that can possibly be ingested (water, food, etc..) would be replicated.

 

[Nine of Four]

The water thing was probably an accident, but I could see it being replicated....

 

[The Old Mixer]

^It was scripted. As I recall, Picard looks at him disapprovingly because he's dripping on the corridor floor, and Wesley says that he should get a towel.

Nobody's addressed my Barclay example. IQ-enhanced Barclay had the computer construct something in the holodeck that was so advanced that he had to explain to the computer how to make it.

 

[R. Star]

You can't really have a full medical staff of holograms (even for emergencies) as they take up a lot of space in the computer core

That was only problem with the Voyager holodoctor, who was allowed to grow unhindered. Holographic nurses could be extremely simple programs compared with holographic entertainment characters, yet very useful in an emergency.

As for replicating medical instrumentation quickly, a Cardassian food replicator quickly produced a working phaser that immediately started firing in "Civil Defense". This shouldn't be a bottleneck as such, then. It's more a question of how much you want to rely on equipment and facilities generated on demand in a combat situation where your generation abilities may be compromised. And it shouldn't be difficult to simply keep equipment in stock; the holodeck-simulated sickbay crashing in the middle of a situation might not be all that fatal a failure, either, provided the patients are at least held on physical beds or stretchers rather than flickering forcefields.

Timo Saloniemi

Seems to me it would be easier to have the EMH control any holo nurses directly with his own program, them being only the physical versions acting as he wants through a computer link or something. That'd speed things up as the "nurse" would be on the same page without them having to even talk.

 

[austen_pierce]

Did Trek ever establish in canon whether complex equipment could even be replicated. In TNG, I thought the answer was no.

It's a interesting question. There are things a replicator can't make at all (some pharmaceuticals), and other things that can be produced, but it takes the replicator time to do so. I can't remember a replicator making say a medical tricorder, I think it could, but how long to make dozens?

We're not talking about a cup of tea.

This HAS to be something that the writers had to grapple with. A device such as the replicator would need to have limits or some restrictions on use, lest it become the out for every problem the crew faced. Borg invasion? Just replicate ships! Data's dead? Replicate him... and so on.