Gastroenterologists have some of the coolest technologies in medicine, a requirement when performing extremely delicate procedures, such as an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). These types of procedures require a high level of spatial orientation – something honed over countless hours of practice. Even colonoscopies require a great level of spatial orientation when trying to navigate through the bowel.
A gastroenterologist fellow once jokingly told me how thankful he was for playing too many video games as a child, because it helped him learn how to perform procedures faster. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is actual truth to the statement. An app called Gyromaniac is an example of how the iPhone 4′s new gyroscope feature could actually help physicians practice spatial orientation. (read more)
The Street is reporting that Apple will only be producing 2 millions iPhone 4 units a month, half the amount planned because of display screen shortages in the supply chain. Apple’s iPhone 4 will have the sharpest and highest resolution screen of any smart phone – Apple calls it a “Retina Display”. We highlighted the display in a previous post as being key for health care providers because of its medical imaging potential. The supply chain issue with the screens should be resolved by August, with normal levels of production resuming as planned.
In a recent poll we conducted of our readers – 65% said they are planning on getting the iPhone 4, and with Apple filling 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4 in just a day – demand is going to be extremely high – and unfortunately, supply will be low. A scenario not new to Apple customers.
A fair amount of news about Palm in the past few months hasn’t exactly been positive. We’re happy they were bought out by HP – and hope the new partnership will help their app catalog eventually rival the Android and iPhone platforms. Now, Palm appears to be giving their customers a thank you present – in the form of discounted apps. Almost all their apps are half priced in their App Catalog, until July 9th. So look up those medical apps you’ve been itching to download and pull the trigger.
We recently reviewed the Radiation Passport, an innovative iPhone application written in part by a radiologist that starts to solve a difficult problem: what is the cancer risk of repeated radiology tests.
While a single CT scan for an important clinical reason or a few chest xrays over a few years should not alarm anybody, some patients experience multiple and repeated scans over a period of years.
Today Associated Press is reporting that the FDA is getting interested in finding ways of tracking how much radiation patients receive. From the article:
“We are considering requirements and guidelines for record-keeping of dose and other technical parameters of the imaging exam,” said Sean Boyd, chief of the FDA’s diagnostic devices branch.
A near-term goal: developing a “radiation medical record” to track dose from cradle to grave.
The article mentioned an “eye-popping” study by Dr. Prashant Kaul of Duke University which found that U.S. heart attack patients get the radiation equivalent of 850 chest X-rays over the first few days they are in the hospital.
For now, patients who are interested in tracking how much radiation they are receiving over time from diagnostic imaging studies do not have much better options than an app like Radiation Passport (iTunes link).
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is to the medical world what the Wall Street Journal is to the business world. The Journal is often considered the “standard”, and they have now released an iPhone app for the content on their website and journal. The app is called “NEJM This Week”, is free to download, and for a limited time you can access all the content for free – so download it as soon as you get a chance.
On initial impressions, this app provides a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips – but we did have some issues with the app that will be discussed later.
With the New England Journal of Medicine App you can access four main types of content: recent articles, images, audio, and video. The audio provided is in the form of weekly literature summaries, along with audio versions of four full Clinical Practice articles. For the clinical practice articles, you are presented a case and and then walked through the guidelines and steps required. (read more)
EPI Life, the first ever ECG cell phone is bringing a huge amount of hype. The phone has been featured on CNET[credit picture] and Engadget, with both outlets hyping its life saving potential – but the exact method of how the integrated ECG unit in the mobile phone works is not clear. Chow U-Jin, medical director at Ephone International, which developed the EPI Life, has said the device records readings by having the user touch their fingers on the side of the phone – basically how it’s being held in the picture.
A trip over to the EPI Life website doesn’t yield many clues, except they do say it has an integrated “multi-lead ECG”. From the output shown in the pictures though and the limited data available – it appears to be useful for heart arrhythmias at best, where changes in the sequence of the ECG tracing may be enough to make the diagnosis.
Heart attacks and other more subtle cardiovascular pathologies require a more detailed scan, usually obtained with “12 lead ECG” where a dozen leads are arrayed in a specific pattern across the chest. When performed properly, the portion of the heart that is affected can even be determined (for example, a lateral heart attack would be reflected on the V5-V6, 1 & aVL leads). Some types of heart attacks are not even reflected on the ECG and only discovered later by blood tests showing abnormally elevated cardiac enzymes.
Basically, if you think you’re having a heart attack, you should first be calling 911, and not performing a self administered ECG that provides limited data.
Then the question is, how well do portable “leadless” ECG monitors work for monitoring arrhythmias? I went through some literature to see if I could dig anything up. (read more)
Calgary Scientific’s ResolutionMD Mobile app has already gotten approval by Health Canada for diagnostic use by Canadian physicians – the only problem is it only runs on the iPhone. They were expecting to release the iPad version of the popular radiology image viewer in the 3rd quarter of this year, and if they plan on sticking to this time line, it means we’ll be seeing the iPad version of this app within the next few weeks. Above is a fantastic video of the medical imaging software in action on the iPad. It’s sure to make radiologists salivate, especially with the use of pinch to zoom and the multi-touch features of the iPad. We’re crossing our fingers the launch of this app does not get delayed.
The Blio reader is a fascinating digital publication platform, seemingly poised to grow rapidly across multiple devices. Since medical textbooks are such a prime target for digital publishing, one can almost guarantee that the Blio Reader will be how a significant proportion of tomorrow’s medical students and health professionals will be reading.
For those not familiar with Blio, we previewed the e-reader a little while ago, at a time when information on the product was scant and many other sites only were able to report on what was divulged through a few interviews or based on the product web site.
Since then, more information has come to light, further showing this e-readers enormous potential for the medical world and why the medical community should be on notice.
iPhone 4 pre-orders started today at 4am eastern time with a bang – completely overwhelming the Apple Website and paralyzing the online store. There were reports of multiple outages, and most were relegated towards using the AT&T website to pre-order their phones.
Are you caught up in all the hype? Or is it causing you to let out a yawn? We’ve love to know what you think, and if you have a moment fill out the two poll questions below:
Many, including ourselves at iMedicalApps, have speculated on the possible uses of the iPad in various healthcare settings. So we decided to test the iPad in the operating room. The first question we had was: “Will the iPad work properly in the sterile environment of the operating room?”
The short answer to that question is yes – but in the process we had some interesting findings on how the iPad’s capacitive screen works with gloves and sterile enclosures – potentially affecting how the iPad will be used in the healthcare setting. (read more)
KSDK, a news station from St. Louis, recently ran an interesting story on how the iPad is being used in innovative ways at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Tyler Robertson, a child life specialist at the hospital, says the iPad is being used for three purposes: Education, distraction, and preparation. An example is how the iPad is used to prepare children for the operating room by showing them pictures of staff they will encounter. The video contains a few other interesting examples of it’s use in practice.
Built primarily to function with Envisionier’s endogo and endogo HD portable endoscopic camera systems, the eGoWorks manager software and accompanying app facilitate online data storage and collaboration for endoscopists. Here we review eGoWorks from Envisionier Medical Technologies, an intriguing tool that facilitates data storage, management, and sharing by endoscopists.
In this review, we will first discuss Envisionier and their endogo systems, then examine the eGoWorks manager software and its features, and finally we will consider the eGoWorks app and its capabilities.
Based out of Woodstock, GA, Envisionier was founded by Dr. Patrick Melder, a practicing otolaryngologist and former chief of ENT at Walter Reed Medical Center. Awards on Envisionier’s website include the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year in 2009 and the Young StartUp Ventures Top Innovator Award.
Its flagship products include the endogo and endogo HD portable endoscopic systems (pictures to the left), which represent, to our knowledge, the first forays into portable hand-held, battery-operated endoscopic video cameras (that connect to most rigid and flexible scopes). (read more)
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