Imagine that you are having heart surgery. You've been preparing mentally and physically for months and you consider it to be one of the most important days of your life. You carefully select a hospital where you think you will receive the best care.

How would you like to find out that the technician monitoring the machine keeping you alive during your surgery was texting? Or that the surgeon was stepping away to make personal calls on his cellphone?

Unfortunately, "distracted doctoring" appears to be a growing trend in hospitals nationwide, and medical malpractice could easily be a side effect.

An article last month in The New York Times reveled that while cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices were introduced in hospitals and doctors' offices to help prevent medical mistakes, they actually pose a dangerous distraction in many cases.

Yes, these devises allow medical staff to have instant access to patient records, information about drugs and other useful medical data, but many are using them to surf the internet or have personal conversations instead.

These distractions could hinder care and lead to medical mistakes as they take the medical staff's attention off of the patient, sometimes at critical moments, The New York Times reported.

Although there is not much research available yet on the topic, a recent study published in Perfusion, a medical journal about cardio-pulmonary bypass surgery, showed some disturbing figures.

Out of the 439 medical technicians surveyed for the study, 55 percent admitted to talking on cellphones while monitoring bypass machines during heart surgery. Additionally, 50 percent said that they had texted during heart surgery.

As the study concluded, "[s]uch distractions have the potential to be disastrous."

Source: The New York Times, "As Doctors Use More Devices, Potential for Distraction Grows," Matt Richtel, Dec. 14, 2011