Wanderings – Struggling with old technology

I have an affinity for old electronics, particularly old computers. My first computer was an old Commodore 64. In high school, I built and sold PC computers for a while. As an adult, one of my career paths led me to fixing or resurrecting old Macintosh computers. Even now, working for a newspaper, I repair the old computers as needed. Most of the old computers I have worked on, the old technology, is to keep working the things that don’t need to be updated. You see a lot of this legacy equipment in manufacturing. If the process works and you can produce a widget with that 20-plus year old computer, why update? I ran into a nemesis last week that should have been tossed into the dust bin of electronics history – the fax machine.

I have never had any luck with fax machines. Early in my working life, the fax machine was king. The store I worked at in high school used to receive all its corporate updates by fax. Everything was done by fax. And then, the Internet arrived. Fax machines have largely gone the way of the dodo and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup chances. Except for one industry – medical forms. One doctor needed to get forms sent to another doctor, via my intervention. Receiving the forms was easy, except half of the pages on the received forms were blank, or had the bottom cut off. A quick phone call to the sender’s office prompted a second attempt – still a failure. I thought having the forms sent two more times by fax might result in having one complete set of forms. The sender asked if I had an email I could receive the forms by instead? At this point readers, please insert the sound effect of my hand slapping my forehead. “Of course,” was my reply.

I called the doctor’s office that I had to send the forms to, to ask if I could just forward the email. “We don’t have email,” the receptionist yelled in response. Appropriately scolded, I printed the forms, along with a cover sheet, and I attempted to fax the package to the office. It took three attempts before I could dial out. A paper jam led to a bunch of beeping tones from the machine, which also made a copy of the documents rather than faxing the documents. “Surely, no one else has these types of calamities when trying to fax,” I muttered under my breath. On the fifth attempt, I heard the nascent squeals and digital beeps and bops of the fax machine connecting with the machine 80 kilometres away. I held my breath, awaiting for the machine to complete its task. The fax machine sounded a long beep, and then printed a piece of paper saying it finished sending. The whole ordeal felt like it took half a day to complete, where in fact it was only 25 minutes. Talking to a couple of friends, they too have had to deal with the dreaded fax machine and all involved medical appointments or doctors’ visits.

Technology has progressed so far in the last 30 years. In 1994, using a fax machine seemed like the latest and greatest thing. Here is a page, with pictures and words, and we can send it between two places far apart. But now, 30 years later, this is the basis of the internet. I can buy property and sign all the documents without ever having to print a copy out and put pen to paper; the same with my banking. I can renew my licence plates and driver’s licence; even apply for citizenship in another country. All the aforementioned is due to the internet, secure web browsers, and all the other newest and greatest technology. Why can’t we do this for something as critical as dealing with medical information?

My problems with the fax machine are more than trying to wrap my head around old technology – it’s that the medical industry has chosen not to stay with the times. It worries me that if doctors and their offices have clung to this bit of tech, what in the medical profession are they clinging to and shouldn’t be? I didn’t see a jar of leeches on the shelf the last time I was in the doctor’s office. I should look more closely on my next visit.

The time of the fax machine is long over. Everyone should get on the same technology page with that. Develop a new system, use any of the 100 different methods out there that already exist, I don’t care. I’m afraid to call the doctor’s office about the forms, and how those will be sent back to me. Perhaps they will want a response via teletype and Morse code? I am going to draw a line in the sand for that.

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This column was originally published in the December 11, 2024 print edition of the Morrisburg Leader.