3.5 Basic Medical Tricorder Operation
This memo describes the Medical Tricorder as a Standard unit fitted with a Medical Peripheral, explaining the hand scanner, how it displays patient data, and how it works with other Sickbay instruments.
Basic Medical Tricorder Action
(Subject to change by individual directors, humidity, sunspots, stock market fluctuations, etc.)
The use of the medical tricorder depends on the technique of the particular user, but here are some basics about what this little gizmo is and what it can do.
Like the Standard Tricorder, the Medical Tricorder combines the functions of many present-day devices (and many others yet to come), such as radar, sonar, CAT scanner, EKG, supercomputer, television, VCR, laserdisc player, shortwave radio, et cetera. About the only things it can't do are darn socks and wash dishes.
When the tricorder is closed, all of the controls are covered up for protection. It can still record information though, by using its sensors (the little white and blue lites in the exposed front end.) With the the Medical Peripheral attached, these lites aren't visible, but we'll pretend the tricorder is still doing its job.
When the tricorder is open, and all the controls are accessable, most of the information you'll want to study would pop up on the little screen. The Medical tricorder is smart enough to know how to present it, like in graphs, lists of drugs, scanner pictures of broken bones, flow patterns of blood vessels, and that kind of thing.
When you aim the front of the tricorder at the patient, what you need to know would be on the screen. You'll also be getting more detailed information about the specific body parts/functions by running the little silver scanner (the one with the red blinkie) around the patient. Dr. McCoy used to scan people all the time with his scanner in the first series, as we all know.
The scanner has two ends, one tapered, one flat (the flat end has the red lite). The flat end gets pointed at people, so we can see the blinkie (we love blinkies).
Without the Medical Peripheral attached, the tricorder can still do medical studies, but is more limited in its capabilities (maybe it works a little slower, maybe it doesn't have as much computer memory, etc.). Data has used his Standard Tricorder for scanning aliens, so it does some biological things. The Medical Peripheral just makes things easier.
The Medical Tricorder is real useful when working with the other instruments in Sickbay. Information recorded “in the field” can be transferred to the Sickbay computers; it's a good general instrument to use during both routine and crisis situations.