“Neurologists, neurosurgeons and interventional neurologists are among those at the 850-bed Hartford Hospital Stroke Center in Hartford, Conn., relying on Apple technology for their IT needs. The center runs three main eight-core Mac Pro workstations with 16 GB of RAM,” Andrew K. Burger reports for MacNewsWorld.
“‘OsiriX and VMWare are installed on all of the eight-core Mac Pros we utilize,’ Gary Spiegel, the center’s director of neurointervention and comedical director, told MacNewsWorld. OsiriX is an open source software system for processing, viewing and archiving 3-D medical images,” Burger reports. “‘Each is connected to Xserve RAIDs over Fibre Channel to provide access to all of our data at the highest speed. When we see patients in our clinic, we will display images on a large screen, discuss amongst ourselves, and then bring the patient in the room and discuss treatment options, if needed,’ Spiegel said.”
Burger reports, “The stroke center also employs redundant display-archive systems in its angiography lab connected by Myricom 10 gigabit Ethernet and standard Ethernet. Hence, ‘two people can access imaging simultaneously and we can connect to the clinic computer — 300 meters and four floors up — via Apple Remote Desktop, in real-time,’ Spiegel added.
Burger reports, “There are three reasons Apple technology is at the core of the Hartford Hospital Stroke Center’s IT environment, Spiegel explained. “‘The OsiriX application that we use is very powerful, open-source to allow customization, and fully supports Digital Subtraction Angiography, which most commercial systems do not. OsiriX was built using Apple’s Cocoa development technology, and thus is only available for Mac OS X,’ he added.”
“‘Apple has very competitive pricing on equipment and has extremely competitive pricing on RAID storage. … The Xserve RAID has performed flawlessly, and cost thousands of dollars less than the competitors’ quotes,’ Spiegel said. Third, the stability of the Mac OS, as well as that of OsiriX, and the simplicity of its user interface translate into the center being able to concentrate its resources providing healthcare rather than dealing with system crashes and long tutorials, Spiegel continued,” Burger reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “amex” for the heads up.]