The iPod photo goes medical
By Dan Wu 
posted December 21st 2004 7:39AM
posted December 21st 2004 7:39AM
We knew there was a good practical use for
the iPod photo and that it wasn't just meant to be a
pseudo movie viewer, as doctors in Switzerland have
developed OsiriX, a system for displaying medical images via iPod. Docs can easily scroll through for the appropriate
picture and they can easily carry around thousands of images with them at all times.
Hmmm, am I the only one who'd be a little worried if whilst I was undergoing medical treatment, my doctor pulled out his iPod and started using that for help??? It is a good idea but I think I'd be happier seeing it on A PDA than on an iPod!
Wouldn't a WiFi connected PDA be more useful..? Better resolution, can make annotations/attach notes to the photos, that can be all stored on a central server accessible by everyone who needs them, fill in forms, bring up the patient's records.
An iPod is kind of limited to viewing photos that have to be first downloaded. Would they put a hundred docking stations someplace or something?
Doesn't seem practical.
There is actually some sort of Quicktime VR implemented with this thing too. I think that these doctors are huge Apple fanatics and want to really get the most out of whatever Apple has to offer - Ie., use the iPod photo instead of a PDA.
RE: Anthony
How does the iPod photo do this:
http://homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix/PICTS/Ipod_PET_CTshort.mov
Is it just showing slides smoothly or something else?
Whopee, once again some company manages to re-invent the wheel and make it look like some new form of tech. As the comments before me have mentioned this is something that your average PDA w/memory expansion and linked into a hospitals network could easily accomplish AND is a much safer bet in terms of patient confidentiality. Lets recall the "most embarassing gadget SNAFU" stories shall we? Except instead of Dr. Smith being embarrased about having 2LiveCrew on his IPod, its the .jpgs of your last colonoscopy, your spouses mammogram, or parts of your medical records which get sampled by his freinds and family. This is a HIPAA nightmare. I know that the IPod is the Gadget du Jour of the new century, and I strive for minimizing one's tech load as much as the next techie, but let's use our heads here a little for goodness sake!
Am I the only one who doesn't want my doc basing his diagnosis on a 1.3" screen?
"Sorry, that's not a tumor, that's just some Cheez Whiz on the screen!"
Brad..
Interesting.. so for each Patient.. the doctor could have an album of .. er.. CAT scans or whatever (DUH.. I know nothing about medicine) and when he syncs his iPod he automatically has a psuedo-3D model to look at on the iPod...
It's worth noting that.. the iPod has about 90% marketshare for the HD Players.. so it's likely that lots of doctors already have iPods.. some may even have the iPod photo (like the video).. there's always the "Well I want one anyway" factor.. which is why people aren't using Palm Pilots for this stuff (ahem.. which do NOT have 60GB storage)
The iPod also has a very rudimentary Notes feature.. which.. well.. I don't know how you would organize across 100+ patients... and a pretty cool Calendar feature..
all of this stuff is really cool for professionals.. of course..
Before everyone gets visions of iPod ruling the world, go to
http://www.amicore.com
A joint venture between Microsoft, IBM, and Pfizer - those are some pretty deep pockets.
I'm no lover of MS, but that is a list of some pretty heavy hitters.
"Apache Ron"
mike:
why would 60GB of storage be needed when you could just connect wirelessly to a central server, which could be backed up continously using various redundancy measures?
The data can also be updated in real time, and not having to wait until you dock your iPod.
Those disbelieving the value of this need to read up more on the application. While the iPod photo is handy for viewing the pics, that is not the primary benefit of the system. The easy transportation and rendering of these large complex files from the ipod to Mac systems is where the benefit to doctors is. The storage network that has to handle these images are originally stored to is huge and complex. Working with them from the ipod and greatly increases the rendering performance and accessability. Try having 20 people all watch different DVDs over a wireless network at once.