Humble pager remains a lifesaver

Coming of age in the 1980s when Pac-Man was the newest rage, the pager has survived and evolved over three decades. It stubbornly remains a key piece of hospital communication at a time when a doctor without a smartphone has a technology dinosaur vibe. "We can have a robot assisting with surgery, yet we're still using pagers," said April Zepeda, spokeswoman for The Everett Clinic. Providence Regional Medical Center Everett has nearly a thousand pagers in use.