“He’ll find out whether he was right when 3,500 neurosurgeons meet in Philadelphia in May for what he believes is the nation’s first paperless scientific or medical convention,” Burling reports.
“When they register at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting, the doctors will be given iPod touches already loaded with everything they’ll need, including the program (165 pages last year), summaries of research presented at the meeting, advertising and information from exhibitors,” Burling reports. “Doctors will be able to use the iPods for messaging and for interacting with presenters during meetings. The convention also attracts 3,500 exhibitors and guests who will not be given the devices.”
“Not only will the iPods encourage community building, but they will save a lot of paper, said Oh, who heads a convention committee on the machines,” Burling reports. “The programs alone would have used more than half a million pages, he said, and most of those would have been left behind in hotel rooms.”
Burling reports, “AANS bought the iPod touches and added $100 to the registration fee. Apple will have people from its local stores on hand to answer questions, and members of the young neurosurgeons committee will help, too.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Today is Martin Luther King Day, a U.S. federal holiday. The markets are closed today in the U.S. and many people have the day off. Consequently, we expect news to be light, although we do hope to bring you Apple-related news throughout the day.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Cubert” for the heads up.]
iPods used to be used in the operating room for music. Now I guess they’ll also be used for instructions.
Very cool story… but what is it lately with all the stories involving people with confusing last names? A while back we had a story about someone with a last name of Um… now we’ve got one involving an Oh. Why have I not heard about last names like this before? And more importantly, if Janice Um marries Jared Oh, will she hyphenate her last name as Oh-Um or Um-Oh?
Gabriel: Yet another fscking xenophobic American.
Gabriel,
Very funy!
What if they already owns an iPod touch?
Could they just download the information?
Gabriel:
Sandra Oh, comedian/actress. Plays a character on Grey’s Anatomy and has been in many other shows and moviesl. She has been acting for over a decade.
Hmmpphh. So the registration fees were upped by $100, they are distributing iPods instead of paper, based on the notion that they are saving a lot of paper (trees). Ok, so instead of having disposable paper, there are disposable iPods now? Seriously… if this happens at every convention they go to, it won’t take long for an attendee to amass quite a collection of iPods. I suppose they could resell the extras, but it seems it’d just make more sense to provide the material in a downloadable format that allows the attendees to access it on the device of their choice that they likely already own.
“iPods used to be used in the operating room for music. Now I guess they’ll also be used for instructions.”
That’s encouraging!
“After downloading the App from the iTunes Store, begin the triple bypass. Step 1: Using instrument #19 begin incision at Point A and end at Point B.”
They could shorten all of that medical school time down to six months.
Just give everybody a 16 Gig USB thumb drive with all docs, etc. and they can load it on their computers, phones, iPods, whatever. I would imagine most neurosurgeons have these gizmos.
@ Fat Basterd
But I’m also sure the iPods won’t be “disposed of.” At the very least, some friend or family member will get a great Valentines Day gift!
Question: Who did all the “pre-loading” of all the documents and how did they do it? Podcasts?
@Tired of Retards
Gabriel may have been a little lame in setting up his joke, but that is hardly “xenophobic”. I don’t know where you are from, but I have little doubt that I could find a fair amount of people within 5 miles of you that are just as capable of offending others, as Gabriel seems to have offended you. It is not a trait exclusive to “fscking xenophobic Americans”. There is more evidence in your comment that you are afraid of Americans than there is that Gabriel has any fear or ill will towards non-Americans. The worst you can claim about Gabriel is that he is ignorant (for not being familiar with names)… and a lousy joke teller.
After the iSlate is released, these types of seminars will never be the same.
“Uma, Oprah, Oprah, Uma.” ~ Letterman ’94.
Right on, Spark.
Neat idea. I once took my dad to a FACP meeting, American College of Physicians, where he was one of the oldest inductees, and they give you a crappy brief with tons of meeting documents, binders and binders of notes. Having it on an iPod is great.
Not only is the iPod reusable, not only does it save on paper and crappy briefs, but it also saves shoulders as that stuff weighs a ton. You don’t want your surgeon injuring his shoulder do you?
I hope they load UCLA’s OsiriX on those iPods so that the surgeons can learn to load their neurosurgical CT scans on there.
I think the environmental impact of manufacturing and iPod is much greater than a few hundred pages of paper.
However, I like the idea of being paperless out of convenience.
Do the Amish have it right? Not!
With comments like that from anaknipedro we might as well go back into caves.
Oh, what a brilliant idea.
This is a brilliant use of the iPod Touch. Companies and educational systems should adopt this idea!!!!
Need to perform brain surgery? There’s an app for that.
MDN Magic Word: open
And so it begins, look for more out of the box uses for any touch product Apple comes up with.
Waitresses taking your order and relaying it to the cooks 22 inch touch screen iMac in the Kitchen.
Cops writing tickets. Not too happy about it.
Apple will show us the future and it will be Wonderous !
(ok, I just vomited in my mouth a little) sorry.
@I’m a PC is still a dbag
Isn’t paper “greener” than electronics? Wouldn’t insuring all paper materials be made of recycled paper… and having recycle bins freely available be better for the environment?
Just saying… It was a good idea though.
Gabriel, you sound like a primitive, unsophisticated, uneducated PC user. Shame on you for down-grading the discussion. Low. Real low. And I’m not just referring to IQ.
They have some nerve.
Gartner has been providing iPhone/iPod touch support for all of their conventions (events) for over a year now including all functionality mentioned in this article. Although it is still web-based rather than a native app, it’s still pretty cool and very useful. Their mobile site is at mab.gartner.com.
This must be the new neural network.