the basic book calls medkits autosofts. does that mean its the same as the profession autosoft or can a pilot with the first aid autosoft use a medkit? thanks

Medkits aren't autosofts, they're devices. They help out with First Aid and Medicine skills, and substitute their rating for first aid if you don't have it.

There are autosofts for both of those skills. Sure, they're going to be limited to rating 4, but that's not too bad.

Yes, this means that an Evo orderly with first aid/medicine autosofts and fuzzy logic is an awesome downtime doctor. You can get a better effect by slapping a machine sprite inside, too.

thats good. I was using a build for pilots and medkits, but then I read the part of the book that said "If a trained medtech uses a medkit/autodoc when healing a character, she receives a dice pool modifier equal to the device’s First Aid or Medicine autosoft rating." which made me think I couldnt stack a pilot with the medkit. how about hooking the medkit up by commlink to three other pilots of rating 1 with a 1 autosoft for first aid to get the +3 for trained assistants. does that work too. and also a tacnet bonus and a vr bonus to go with a simrig?

hmmm... i'd say yes on the assistants, no on the tacnet since it's not a combat situation (potentially yes on an AR bonus if the main drone is actually being directly controlled by a person, but if the drone is just following orders from a human no to that as well), and no to VR unless the main drone is being rigged or remote controlled with a command program.

Would you call a character with skill 1 and linked attribute 1 a "skilled assistant"?

The tacnet idea on the other hand has some merit...obviously the rules were written for combat, but something like a "mednet" which lets surgeons coordinate their job sounds very reasonable.

I will be very afraid if the surgeons performing on me could take any benefit of a tacnet to help them locate themselves, their tools, me and my organs in RA...

It might prevent them leaving stuff inside that shoudn't be there... and leaving stuff out that should be in there...

That's the reason why I am afraid of them in the first place.

"Hey mister runner sir, I am Jerry and will be you surgeon tonight, here is my assistant Candy and Bernice. Candy , please turn on your commlink, i dont see you on my screen. Err.. Bernice, are you sure your turn on the RFID on the scalpels ? because I dont saw them on the mapboard of the ops room..."

"Ok I am in.. *Next Artery ... turn .. right* (disemboweled female vaginal voice) okay... hum, can someone highlight me the spleen please ? I always had trouble between it and the prostata... *Cut... Left* ... err.. *I said Cut... Left*.. okay going in.. *MY Left*..."

I think a better mechanic is a teamwork test adding in the Hot-Sim VR Bonus to the assistants teamwork test.
I'd totally allow the dramatic "as a spurt of blood arcs up to strike your EVO Orderly, your tacsoft allows you to narrowly get missed."

;-)

in earlier editions, the valkyrie module used to be fully automatic. But in SR4 its a oversized medikit with remote surgery capability and automatic stabilization.

As a mobile Medical Shop, doesn't that mean a Valkyrie Module allows the in-built Medkit rating of 4 to be added to Surgery/Medicine tests as well as First Aid? I mean, for a 2000¥ piece of gear, it still has some decent benefits from removing negative situational modifiers, to allowing gear synergies like control rig bonuses.