“Georgetown University Hospital orthopedic surgeon Dr. Felasfa Wodajo, who has been using the device during surgeries to view patient images and records, as well as to ‘review relevant anatomy to the point of care,’ believes it’s only a matter of time before iPads — or tools like it — become as indispensable in the OR as a scalpel,” Bowman reports. “‘The iPad clearly has the potential to be very useful in the hospital and in the operating theater,’ Wodajo writes. ‘Medicine is, by its nature, a mobile occupation and a powerful and flexible computing device will almost certainly play some role in our future everyday practices.'”
Full article here.
iPad in the O R as indispensable as scalpels…?
O R they?
With a good splat cover.
Or try equipping the EMT personnel with an iPad equipt ambulance then they will really save lives since the ER Physician will really have his eyes and ears on the patient also talking about the quick connect to the ER as well as the pad 2 which hopefully has at least one camera!
…clamp….beep….forecepts…beep…..Fruit Ninja….beep….
How do you sterilize it?
Our OR has a 27″ screen on an articulating arm that can be swung right in front of the surgeon’s face. We can display anything that is available on the hospital’s network. So he can keep both bloody hands in the patient’s chest while reviewing angiograms, getting real-time lab results, checking on the football scores, etc. iPads may have a great future elsewhere (eg showing patients their X-rays at the bedside) but there are better ways to do it in the OR.
Unless, of course, the surgeon is one of those who loves to keep all information to himself in order to make all the staff look, and feel, like they don’t know what’s going on…
Quick! Make an app that goes, “PING!”
The idea is that what is usually quite expensive, dedicated monitors, might be made a little cheaper. Anyhow, I’m not too sure iPad will make it into the OR. I DO believe surgeons will use them to review cases.
@bbb
I got your “Rushmore” ref. Good one!
@Snapper
No problem sterilize wise. You simply seal it into a disposable clear plastic bag. I do that when on my boat or when using on the golf course. You can use all the touch moves right thru the plastic. And then just put on a new one just like they do with things like disposable syringes, etc. Try that with a keyboard device.
Need to perform angioplasty? There’s an app for that.
Just a matter of time until they sew someone back up with a freakin’ iPad inside them. Mark my words!
Look out for those new technician jobs soon to be advertised as iPad Operators who must be able to stand the site of booed and keep a screen clean.
‘or devices like it’