Mark Bridge writes:

“Okay, Mr Bridge, just relax. This won’t hurt a bit. I just need to… oh, hold on a moment, my phone’s crashed. I’ll just pop the battery out and we can start again.”

Some years ago I read an article in Fast Company magazine. Entitled “They Write the Right Stuff”, it explained how NASA’s software engineers couldn’t afford to make errors because any mistakes were likely to kill their colleagues.

That need to check, double-check and then check again was also one of the reasons the space agency ended up looking on eBay for tried-and-tested obsolete components.

But now things seem to be swinging towards the opposite end of the scale. It comes with news that iMobileHealth has released iAorticValve, which is the Stethoscope of the 21st Century. And there was me thinking that the stethoscope was still the stethoscope of the 21st century.

Oh, hang on a moment, it still is. iMobileHealth’s iAorticValve app provides news and online information but doesn’t come with a rubber pad to attach it to a patient’s chest.

Just as well, really. I’m not a doctor (you’d already guessed, hadn’t you?) but I’m pretty sure that consumer electronics don't have much of a place in medicine. The Blue Screen of Death sounds way too literal for my liking.