“When my boss, Joachim Herrmann, told me that I had to cover liver surgery using an iPad, I had no idea how an iPad could be helpful during an operation,” Fabian Bimmer reports for Reuters. “I knew that iPhones, iPads and tablets were becoming more important in being useful in all sorts of activities in our daily life – but for surgeries?”
“To get a feel for the atmosphere, the hospital, light conditions and the team, I went to meet Professor Karl Oldhafer, chief physician of general and visceral surgery at the Asklepios Clinique in Hamburg-Barmbek, two days before I had to go through with my project,” Bimmer reports. “After two more nights I woke early, had my usual pot of coffee and arrived pretty much on time at the Barmbek hospital to join Professor Oldhafer’s team in the changing room.”
Bimmer reports, “Then the Professor entered the room with an iPad in his hands… When he could see the liver he used the iPad to localize the two tumors in the liver… [via] augmented reality, which allows the liver to be filmed with an iPad and overlaid during an operation with virtual 3D models reconstructed from the real organ. Developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, this procedure helps locate critical structures such as tumors and vessels and is expected to improve the quality of transferring pre-operational resection plans into actual surgery, according to Bianka Hofmann from the institute.”
Read more, and see photographs of the surgery (WARNING: Not for the squeamish), in the full article here.
[Attribution: International Business Times. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BlackWolf” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Apple iPad, iPhone are doctor’s top choices by huge margin – June 1, 2013
In other news, an iPad was used by surgeons to remove a lower bowel obstruction caused by an Android tablet.
WARNING: If your doctor walks into the operating room holding an Android tablet, leave immediately and get a second opinion.
Why not use a scalpel?
So a surgeon has to chose between single instruments, such as choosing between wearing surgical gloves or using a scalpel?
I think this might be a reference to a European commercial, I forget for what, that had a guy chopping vegetables with an iPad. Sort of a fail as a commercial, since the product is lost, but the antics remain.
But this is a definite “Wow!” use of the iPad.
Excellent use of Apple technology. If only they had the iPad for Steve’s own liver surgery. Things might have turned out differently.
RIP Steve.
Sorry I meant Steve’s surgery for pancreatic cancer.
I thought you were right the first time (both times actually). Didn’t Steve have a liver transplant?
He did indeed.
The doctor who performed the liver transplant in Memphis bought the house he stayed in to recuperate.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/26/memphis-doctor-who-performed-steve-jobs-liver-transplant-bought-his-house.html
If the surgeon gets bored in the middle of the operation, he can just launch Angry Birds to liven things up a little.
This use of an iPad means nothing. Apple is still doomed because Microsoft says iPads are for children. Adults use Surface RTs.
Adults use Surface RTs to swat flies, the Surface Pro for horseflies.
Video would have been nice.
Put THAT story in your commercial Microsoft!
Won’t find Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet anywhere near operating room. Doctors try to stay away from death, no matter what the screen color is!
Jony Ive: “We’ve worked very hard to improve on the iPad design. The new iPad is even lighter and thinner than ever before. It’s so thin in fact, that surgeons are now able to use it instead of a scalpel. It’s revolutionized surgery. The doctor’s bag has all but been eliminated, and doctors need only bring their iPad from exam room to operating room.”