Informatics Archive

Friday, November 6, 2009

FiatLux Visualize Free Is Now Free for All

Medical visualization software company FiatLux Imaging, Inc., from Redmond, WA, has announced that it is making available for download its FiatLux Visualize™ Free application. The software, designed to run on any computer with Windows, is a 2D/3D DICOM viewer for CT and MRI medical data.

To learn more about the software, check out the press release, product page, or video clips embedded below.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Shareable Ink Turns Paper Forms Into Digital Entry System

At TEDMED last week we spoke with Dr. Vernon Huang from Shareable Ink, a company that provides a digital solution for physician practices that prefer to stay with paper. We were a bit skeptical at first, having seen other "digital pens", but Shareable Ink is impressively simple, ingenious, and intuitive to use.

Link: Shareable Ink ...

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Thursday, October 22, 2009

GE's Decision Support Software Aims to Bring Efficiency, Safety to Clinical Wards

General Electric is previewing a new clinical decision support software developed with the help of Intermountain Healthcare hospital system from Salt Lake City, UT. Using years of Intermountain's clinical data from real world situations, the software is designed to monitor dozens of patients, display live data about them, and raise alerts when certain criteria are met. The package would sit on top of an already installed electronic medical record system and would use historical data about each patient to create appropriate alerts and warnings. According to GE, the pilot software will be launched at Intermountain in November and GE will unveil the full solution at the March meeting of the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS).

Here's Dr. Graham Hughes, Chief Medical Officer & Vice President of Product Strategy for GE demoing the software:

Here's more from our visit yesterday to GE's healthymagination technology showcase in New York:

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Friday, September 25, 2009

New Atom Tablets Coming to A Hospital Near You

TabletKiosk (Torrance, CA) has released three new ultra portable tablet PCs that should find themselves comfortable in a clinical environment. All three are based on the cool running Intel Atom processor, which means lower power consumption and no need for a ventilation port.

Features from the company press release:

eo™ a7330D Ultra-Mobile PC
This newest member of TabletKiosk's family of eo Ultra-Mobile PCs is the first 7-inch tablet to feature an auto-switching dual mode active digitizer / resistive touch screen panel developed by Wacom®, the pioneering leader in pen technology. Business professionals in hospitality, home automation and industrial control systems are also excited about other features of the eo a7330D including its dual, hot swappable battery packs; integrated wireless connectivity; a “fit-in-your-hand” design; and a revolutionary new modular expansion system. By attaching one of the interchangeable expansion modules, the functionality of the device can be customized for specific business applications including scanning bar codes, swiping credit cards and even connecting to enhanced 3G/3.5G wireless wide area networks. Based on high-speed USB Bus technology, the modules are hot swappable and can be removed or switched out without powering down the system.

eo a7330D is powered by the Intel® Atom™ Z530P processor and comes standard with 1.0 GB RAM, 1.8" 80 GB HDD (SSD drives optional), sunlight viewable screen, dual hot swappable batteries, built-in wireless capabilities including GPS, 802.11a/b/g/n Dual Channel WiFi and Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR, and the auto-switching dual mode digitizer/touch screen for highly accurate handwriting recognition and finger touch control.

eo TufTab® a7230XD Rugged Ultra-Mobile PC

The new eo TufTab a7230XD is a rugged Ultra-Mobile PC that surpasses MIL-SPEC-810F specifications and is rated IP54 to provide a lightweight and durable solution for on-the-go professionals working in harsher than normal environments. Featuring the same auto-switching active digitizer / passive touch screen as the eo a7330D, this revolutionary device is ably suited for outdoor fieldwork, data collection, warehousing, mobile point of sale and other work functions which endure extreme handling.

Also powered by the Intel® Atom™ Z530P processor, the eo TufTab a7230XD comes standard with 1.0GB RAM, 80GB HDD (SSD optional), 802.11a/b/g/n Dual Channel WiFi, 2.0Mpixel Still/Video camera with auto focus, dual hot swappable batteries, integrated RFID reader, built-in 1D/2D barcode scanner, 1.0Gb Ethernet, RS-232 Serial port, Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR, and TPM v1.2. Built-in 3G/3.5G WWAN module is optional.
Sahara NetSlate™ a230T

The latest addition to the Sahara Slate PC® line of 12.1-inch slate-style Tablet PCs is the Sahara NetSlate a230T. This new, entry-level touch screen tablet is more affordable option for on-the-go professionals and companies looking for a true slate-style tablet solution, but not necessarily with the enhanced feature-set or processing power of the existing Sahara Slate PC® i400 series of Tablet PCs.

The Sahara NetSlate a230T shares the same body design and form factor of its i400 series siblings, but is powered by the Intel® Atom™ N270 processor and comes standard with 1.0GB RAM (upgradeable to 2.0GB) a 120GB HDD (SSD optional), 802.11a/b/g/n Dual Channel WiFi, Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR and an optional built-in 3G/3.5G WWAN module.

Press release: TabletKiosk Expands its Tablet PC Product Line with a Trio of New Systems Based on the Intel Atom Processor...

Product pages: Sahara NetSlate a230T; eo a7330D and eo TufTab a7230XD...

Some thoughts about the announcement from The Medical Quack...

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Web-Based Carestream Cardiology PACS Launched; Features Workstation Interoperability

Carestream Health out of Rochester, NY is releasing a new web based cardiology PACS. Using one unified platform, clinicians can review historical and current images and videos side by side, create reports for echos, cardiac catheterizations and nuclear cardiology procedures. ECG data management is also included with the ability to interface to different manufacturers' ECG machines.

Structured reporting templates for all cardiovascular applications (cath, echo, vascular and nuclear) with point-and-click access to pre-defined statements along with digital signatures. Formatting is user-customizable and reports can be distributed using HL7, email, automatic print or fax transmissions.

Comprehensive measurement tools for echocardiography applications, including the ability to import measurements taken at the modality. The platform also delivers specialized echocardiography features, including automatic quad screen display for stress echo exams, automatic DICOM calibration and the ability to view imported exams and documents from third-party systems.

An ECG management solution that includes a time-saving worklist and the ability to integrate to multi-vendor ECG carts.

Catheterization reporting tools such as coronary tree annotations for stenosis, stent and graft locations to eliminate dictation and provide a single tool for reporting of echo, cardiac cath and nuclear cardiology.

Nuclear cardiology features, including web-based gated SPECT wall motion review, a 3D cine and localizer tool, as well as viewing and reporting tools.

Press release: Carestream Health Launches New Web-Based Cardiology PACS...

Product page: CARESTREAM Cardiology PACS...

CARESTREAM Cardiology PACS brochure (.pdf)...

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Friday, July 24, 2009

The Love Affair with Epocrates' iPhone Applications, and The New OTC Module

We love medical iPhone applications, but now we're getting the word that we aren't the only ones. Computing Journal is reporting that Epocrates, Inc. has announced that more than 100,000 physicians are using company's iPhone software in their clinical practices. The company further claims that this user load puts Epocrates among the elite top five percent of iPhone developers whose products are used for more than a month after the download.

“With a decade to refine our clinical content and mobile applications, we have established Epocrates as the most frequently used guide at the point of care with physicians using it more than six times per day,” said Jeff Tangney, president and chief operating officer for Epocrates. “The iPhone platform has been a terrific vehicle for us to continue to innovate, introducing new features physicians have fully integrated into their workflow.”

We can only hope this leads to more exciting medical applications for mobile computing not only from Epocrates, but all medical software publishers.

Coincidentally, Epocrates just released an application for the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile that provides detailed information on over-the-counter medications. Here's a video demonstrating the app:

Product page: Epocrates over-the-counter drug module...

Computing Journal: 100,000 Physicians Actively Use Epocrates on the iPhone...

Epocrates: Mobile Products...

Flashback: Epocrates Essentials Now on iPhone...

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Electronic Medical Record System Powered by Microsoft Office

On his blog, Bill Crounse, MD of Microsoft Health is profiling the work of a company that used Microsoft Office applications to create a fully functional EMR system. gloStream Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan figured that instead of creating a new interface, the company would use something that a lot of people are already comfortable with.

More from Microsoft's Dr. Bill Crounse...

Product page: gloEMR 4.0...

Here's a presentation of the gloEMR 4.0:

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Google Health Can Finally Store Your Medical Files

Google Health recently pushed out an often asked for feature, the ability to store files and documents in a user's PHR account. This includes images, .pdfs, and even audio and video files. The standard allotted file storage for each user is a generous 100MB (though each file needs to be under 4MB), enough to hold quite a few X-ray images, lab reports, and doctor's notes.

In the Official Google Blog post, Google not only announced the feature, a one might say, essential addition to any Personal Health Record system, but they've gone a step further and encouraged its use by promoting advance directives.

Confusion about advance directives, the documents that tells medical professionals which sort of life saving or sustaining measures you'd like taken if you're unable to communicate your preferences, often causes problems in near end-of-life situations. Many times, directives are either non-existent, not current, not correctly completed, or not shared with family members. Naturally, when controversy over a medical directive rears its head, the conservative option, full treatment, is generally taken. Advance directives take the guesswork out of what the patient might want, be it all possible treatments, or only comfort and pain control, and can allow for more peaceful end of life. To ease the process of putting together an advance directive, Google has partnered with Caring Connections, that offers them for free, downloadable for all 50 states.

We got in touch with Julie Wilner, R.N., and Program Manager for Google Health to ask about why Google Health chose to highlight advanced directives. She noted that advance directives are "documents that are integral for families who are dealing with terminal illnesses or difficult end-of-life situations. Not having a signed and readily available Advance Directive can cause problems for families and medical professionals who are trying to navigate difficult times." Also, she pointed out that, "a lot of people in these situations assume you need a lawyer to create an advanced directive, when in fact, you can do so freely and easily online. Because Google Health allows users to upload scanned documents, it's easy to store these types of forms in one place and share them with family members and caregivers. We partnered with Caring Connections to point our users to an easy to use resource for creating advance directives and storing them in Google Health."

Link: Official Google Blog...

Product: Google Health...

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Cisco and UnitedHealth Join in Telemedicine Effort

At a DC press conference, Cisco and UnitedHealth announced Connected Care, a joint effort to create a national telemedicine network aimed, at least at first, at serving rural, difficult to access, and underserved patient populations. The technology, consisting mostly of a secure and high quality video/audio link between a telemedicine center and a doctor's office, would likely be supplemented by on-site nurses and equipment that would provide doctors visual and auditory information about basic vital signs, allowing them to listen to heartbeats, lung sounds, etc., all miles away from the patient. The network itself will be open, and Cisco is hoping to create an environment where third party technologies can integrate into the remote clinic and provide doctors and patients with a better experience. The companies just finished a pilot with a bunch of Cisco employees, who reportedly had a positive experience. Six Connected Care programs are currently in development to beta test the concept.

All you men out there better get ready to turn your head, cough, and hold a video camera to your groin.

From the Cisco press release:

Cisco HealthPresence will be one of the principal technologies enabling Connected Care, using video, audio and medical information to create an experience remarkably similar to an in-person visit with a doctor.
To mark the announcement, the companies unveiled today on Capitol Hill the UnitedHealth Group Connected Care mobile clinic – an 18-wheel clinic showcasing the technology and connectivity available through the network.

"In developing advanced telemedicine technologies, we're unlocking new possibilities for how patients can interact with doctors and medical staff. The in-person visit with a doctor is no longer the sole 'gold standard' method for delivering high-quality health care services," said Dr. Kaveh Safavi, vice president Global Healthcare Practice, Cisco Systems, Inc. "Instead, we've now introduced a new care at-a-distance health care delivery model that better connects people, information and processes into one continuum of care. This new technology-enabled delivery model will improve productivity and efficiency in health care while at the same time minimizing costs for access to quality care services."

Press Release: UnitedHealthGroup, Cisco Launch Connected Care, First National Telehealth Network to Expand Health Care Access...

Link: Connected Care...

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Monday, July 6, 2009

3D Interactive Imaging With an Intuitive Video Game Interface

The Des Moines Register is reporting on a volumetric visualization software package developed at the Iowa State's Virtual Reality Applications Center. The BodyViz application, now distributed by Visual Medical Solutions, LLC. of Ames, IA, processes MR and CT scan data into 3D representation and allows the user to navigate through by using a laptop and a standard Microsoft Xbox controller.

Features from the product page:

A user, with an Xbox 360 controller, can rotate, pan, zoom or fly-thru a patient's virtual anatomy. They can create "clipping" or "slicing" planes and move the planes in and out to see the internal structure of the patient. They can also choose from a variety of colors to enhance organs and features of the data. A user can choose what tissue densities they wish to view such as harder tissues (bone, muscle) or softer tissue (fat, skin). Using actual patient data, virtual trocars can be placed in the 3D MRI, CT scan visualizaton to enhance surgical planning. In addition, surgical instrument "paths" can be created on the fly and a user can fly through these paths interactively.

Product page: BodyViz...

More details from Des Moines Register...

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Clear Lobby: The iMedicor's Business Plan

We recently met with the leadership of iMedicor and learned about their software for HIPAA-compliant medical information transmission, a social network that they not only hope will replace the frustrating fax-and-mail reliance we have today, but actually fulfill Obama's mandate for a national health information exchange (previously on Medgadget).

We were curious, though -- since physician / nurse / clerk / patient sign-up to the service is free, and using the software, building contacts, and sending information around the world is also free... just how are these folks planning to make any money?

It turns out, they've given this some thought. And they've settled on a strategy that, while note actually proven, has been put into practice before -- namely, charging drug reps for access to physicians.

After logging into iMedicor, docs can browse contacts, send secure messages, and browse educational material on a platform called Clear Lobby. This area of the site hosts content, including materials supplied by the pharmaceutical and device industries. Peer reviewed literature, package inserts, and clinical trial data will be hosted here.

What's more, docs can discuss this information with drug reps online. Contacts can only be initiated by physicians, and can be built around an article or more free-form.

iMedicor says this arrangement means everyone wins -- docs get individualized access to reps on demand, as opposed to during lunch breaks or in large group sessions. And Pharma gets much cheaper access to physicians online (compared to in person) at a time where they're facing increasing barriers to access in hospitals and offices.

What's yet to be determined is how much of your online activities the drug reps will have access to -- since iMedicor offers up contacts, messaging, and educational content, physician behavior can be well described, and this information would no doubt be valuable to reps.

We're betting that Clear Lobby's success or failure rides on iMedicor's implementation of drug rep access. If conversations are truly physician-initiated and flow naturally from educational materials, this could fly. If it's at all intrusive, clunky or seems slick, our guess is docs will stay away. And if that happens, well, all the rest of iMedicor's features aren't going to pay for themselves (at least, that's not the current plan).

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Toshiba's Latest 3D Visualization Package Released

Toshiba Medical is announcing the release of two new versions of the company's Voxar 3D PACS visualization system, the Voxar 3D 6.3.2 Workstation and Voxar 3D 6.3.2 ActiveX. The Workstation version is a stand alone software that integrates with PACS systems, while the ActiveX was created to be embedded into existing PACS setups.

From Toshiba Medical Visualization Systems:

Voxar 3D Workstation has a full, enterprise-wide integration with PACS. It uses the PACS worklist, so users can access advanced visualization with just one mouse click. What’s more, it can share data in memory with PACS, loading series at five times the speed of a traditional DICOM transfer. Once a PACS workstation has loaded a series, it is available to Voxar 3D Workstation immediately – there is no need to load it again from the workstation or over a network. And when captures are taken, they are stored in PACS as Live Images, which increases efficiency by allowing advanced visualization to be saved and resumed throughout the workflow.
Voxar 3D ActiveX has all the integration benefits of Voxar 3D Workstation, but has the added value of deeply-embedded integration. With Voxar 3D ActiveX, Voxar 3D views are embedded and controlled within the PACS user interface. PACS customers no longer need to jump between applications to access advanced visualization, and they require less training because they use buttons that are familiar to them. In addition, the features look consistent with the rest of the system, maintaining the distinctive look and feel of the PACS.

Voxar 3D was the world’s first advanced visualization product line to be integrated in PACS. Since then, it has always operated on COTS hardware and standard operating systems – with Voxar 3D 6.3.2 Workstation and ActiveX, it now works with Microsoft Vista. By operating on standard PACS platforms, the Voxar 3D product line allows PACS customers to use existing IT infrastructure and existing supplier arrangements. And by reducing the cost of sale, it allows PACS vendors to retain their margins.

With Voxar 3D, you can easily save complex image reconstructions. Clinical colleagues can restore your work on
any Voxar 3D enabled workstation and create any additional views they need. This allows you to rapidly and easily communicate key images that are essential for surgical planning, treatment and follow-up.

Voxar 3D takes advantage of powerful off-the-shelf graphics cards, which dramatically increase performance and image quality. Complex image reconstructions can be viewed at more than 20 frames per second delivering
real-time, on-the-fly interaction.

Voxar 3D strictly adheres to the DICOM standard for effortless communication with multi-vendor modalities and technologies.

Voxar 3DTM Core
• Live image captures
• Orthogonal, oblique, double-oblique MPR
rendering
• Curved and cross-curved MPR rendering
• MIP, AveIP, MinIP and color volume slabs
• 2D review and compare
Voxar 3DTM Adv anced
• Voxar 3DTM Core, plus...
• Color volume rendering
• MIP volume rendering
• Grayscale volume rendering
• Shaded surface display
• Fly-through navigation
• Targeted color volume review
• 3D segmentation and volume measurement
• Sculpting and automatic 3D bone removal
• MPR shape selection
Voxar 3DTM clinical applications
• Vessel analysis with VesselMetrix
• Cardiac analysis with CardiaMetrix
• Vessel analysis
• Calcium scoring
• 4D cardiac viewer
• Cardiac (LV) analysis
• CT colonography with Voxar 3D ColonMetrix
• PET/CT Fusion

Press release: Toshiba Medical Visualization Systems has announced two major releases in its Voxar 3D advanced visualization product line

Voxar 3D product brochure...

(hat tip: News-Medical.Net)

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Monday, June 15, 2009

Canon Releases Two Video Projectors Featuring DICOM Mode

To properly display X-rays and other medical imagery, DICOM compliant monitors are able to output grayscale with a greater precision than consumer screens. Last week Canon has released two new projector models that feature a DICOM output mode that should be of help in large medical school halls and at academic hospital colloquia.

These products feature a DICOM Simulation mode for compliance with the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Part 14 standardized display function for display of grayscale images. This new mode will provide medical educators with greater flexibility when training and conducting lectures and conferences where a large display is needed. The two projectors are not cleared or approved for medical diagnosis and should not be used for these purposes.
The addition of the DICOM Simulation mode on both the Canon REALiS WUX10 Mark II D and REALiS SX80 Mark II D Multimedia Projectors will allow users in the medical education industry to have high-resolution images with exceptional detail and clarity. Both multimedia projectors will feature the LCOS technology found on all REALiS models to provide medical educators with the ability to display film-like X-Rays to large audiences in lecture halls, while also displaying ultra-smooth, lattice-free images.

Both new multimedia projectors will allow the user to calibrate directly on the projector rather than having to purchase additional equipment. Canon's DICOM Simulation mode offers 21 different levels of grayscale gradation for greater flexibility when calibrating in a classroom, conference room or any other venue where a large display is required and the ambient light can vary.

The Canon REALiS WUX10 Mark II D Multimedia Projector will feature a native WUXGA resolution (1920 x 1200) with a 2.30-megapixel display, while the REALiS SX80 Mark II D Multimedia Projector will have a native SXGA+ resolution (1400 x 1050) with a 1.47-megapixel display. With the additions of these projectors, Canon has further enhanced its total medical education solution from input (digital X-ray image acquisition) to output (projection).

Press release: CANON U.S.A. ANNOUNCES NEW HIGH-RESOLUTION LCOS PROJECTORS WITH DICOM SIMULATION MODE FOR USE IN MEDICAL EDUCATION

Product pages: REALiS WUX10 Mark II D; REALiS SX80 Mark II D

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

iMedicor's Core Competency

Last week we met with the leadership of iMedicor, the secure healthcare portal and conduit for medical documents. Today we'll take a look at the interface and platform they plan to use to elevate them to an essential part of the US healthcare infrastructure.

At it's core, iMedicor is a social networking app -- it has more in common with Linkedin than any electronic health record or information system. But it's got features that may make it indispensable to healthcare communication in the future.

Like LinkedIn (or Facebook or Sermo or iMedExchange) any physician, nurse, tech, administrator, or patient can log into iMedicor and set up an account for free.

Physicians are prompted to enter their DEA number, NPI number, license number, and other numbers that signify great power and responsibility (in a nifty twist, this info can be used, if the MD wants, to auto-populate a CV that can then be tweaked and expanded). Administrators can batch-upload an entire office or department full of physicians, or nurses and techs, too.

Once you're logged in, what's there to do? Well, lots, much of which we'll cover later this week. But the first thing may be to set up or import contacts and create a community of doctors. If you're a primary care doctor, you'd probably link up to specialists to whom you refer patients, or other docs with whom to share notes or ideas. Once they're in the system, you can securely transmit medical information to them in a HIPAA-compliant fashion.

That might not sound like a headline feature, but it is. If you're not in health care, we can't tell you how frustrating it is to try to get medical records in a timely fashion -- it often involves mail or fax or the personal delivery of folders, phone calls before and after, permissions and letterheads, wrong numbers, busy signals, paper jams, and suspicious clerks. Health communication in 2009 looks a lot like it did in 1989, except for those brave, misguided souls that use unsecured email to transmit patient data, risking exposure and legal action.

iMedicor is well-positioned to change that. In addition to doc-to-doc communication, there's the option for office-based transmission of records -- a 'shared inbox.' You can have your clerk or the nurse up front access or receive certain reports, organizing what's necessary for the day's patient visits. Doctors can also send patients their health information through a relationship with Microsoft Health Vault (covered here previously) .

But where iMedicor really stands out, in our estimation, is its interoperability between electronic health information systems. Through some clever coding and pdf manipulation, iMedicor can abstract a patient record from your office EMR, rearrange it to conform to an XML-based standard, and transmit it to another EMR where it should be able to populate a new electronic patient record. We have not seen this in action but iMedicor is confident their engineers have pulled this off.

If this does work as well as they say, you can see how powerfully this system scales as more physicians join. Instead of the current plan to spend billions to build regional, then national health information exchanges (HIE's) administered by ad hoc agencies with insurance, government, and hospital stakeholders, iMedicor is proposing their flavor of social networking can accomplish the same information exchange, much cheaper.

Are they right? We posed some familiar use cases -- the chest pain patient in one emergency department, with a recent cath report across town in another hospital, or the traveler who sees a doc while vacationing, whose doc back home wants lab results. iMedicor always has a solution or two -- either through physicians granting access to other docs or empowering patients via MS Health Vault.

It's not the on-health information exchange quite the way we were trained to expect it -- where a single login gets you access to whatever you're cleared for. iMedicor's network system, with permissions and inboxes, is different, but may provide the same functionality... and will be available much sooner.

Next: if this is free, how is iMedicor going to make money?

Link: iMedicor

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Airstrip: Telemetry for your iPhone?

Amidst all the hype and noise around the iPhone 3GS announced yesterday, you might have missed the demonstration from Airstrip Technologies. Well, we were paying attention -- and what we saw seemed pretty cool. Airstrip Technologies has been featured before on these pages, but now they're looking to take their monitoring system beyond OB and into the world of critical care and cardiology. Expected features include the ability to be push-notified of lab values and imaging results, check vitals remotely, zoom in on particular waveforms and tracings of interest, and possibly archive images for particular patients.

Their site is surprisingly short on specifics for the new apps -- probably because they're waiting for FDA clearance (which took about a year from the initial OB app announcement). But when remote critical care monitoring comes to iPhone, expect a similar arrangement to what they've done for the OB -- the app will be free, but the hospital's gotta pay big bucks for purchasing and installing the Airstrip system.

Barco's New 42 Inch Medical Monitor

Barco is releasing a new large screen medical monitor specifically developed for use in the operating room. The 42" unit may look like your at-home TV, but it features DICOM quality radiological imaging, a fanless design to prevent dust from flying, and all sorts of inputs and picture-in-picture options.

Here's more from Barco:

The MD-4221 is the next generation of Barco's successful HD-42 display which has been further optimized for use in the digital operating room. Equipped with the latest high-quality LCD panel, the MD-4221 delivers bright, crisp images even in highly illuminated OR environments. The display's wide viewing angle ensures reliable, accurate images for everyone in the surgery suite. Surgeons and nurses can easily configure their screen layout by means of a flexible Picture-In-Picture or Picture-And-Picture functionality. This allows for more dynamic presentations that show more information simultaneously on the screen.
The brand-new MD-4221 display is compatible with a multitude of sources, including endoscopic video, room and boom camera video, patient data and surgical planning information. High-Definition video sources, such as HD endoscopy cameras, HD surgical light cameras, etc., can be connected through DVI and HDSDI input. These high-resolution moving images are displayed smoothly, accurately and without artifacts thanks to the extremely fast response time of the display's LCD panel.

The versatile MD-4221 also displays radiology images with great precision. Therefore, the monitor is fitted with a built-in DICOM Look-Up Table to guarantee accurate grayscale representations. It allows surgeons to use the MD-4221 as a digital lightbox for consulting radiology images.

The novel display solution has been specifically designed and certified for use in the Operating Room. The monitor is easy to clean and disinfect (IPX1 compliant) thanks to its non-reflective protective front glass. Its fan-less design avoids the spread of contaminants in the sterile field.

Press release: Barco launches 42-inch full HD flat display for the operating room

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Friday, June 5, 2009

What's Next for iMedicor

It's been a year and a half since we've profiled iMedicor, the secure healthcare portal and conduit for medical documents.

They've been quietly busy in the interim, choosing to develop their technology behind the scenes over growing their user base. When we talked with them in 2007, they touted iMedicor's secure, HIPAA-compliant transmission of data as an alternative to fax and mail. But this week they announced their data conduit will work between disparate electronic medical record systems, essentially entering the field of regional health information exchange. In fact, they plan to answer the government mandate for an interoperable health infrastructure, all by themselves, for free:

"iMedicor, a Vemics Company VMCI, today announced the unveiling of its proprietary technology solution that addresses the long-standing and widespread inability of disparate Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems to communicate, collaborate and exchange medical records in a HIPAA compliant environment.
“Vemics iMedicor portal delivers on the Obama Administration’s call for a secure, interoperable health information infrastructure that will enable healthcare providers to become interconnected,” said Vemics chief executive officer Fred Zolla. “iMedicor’s technology facilitates the transfer of medical records and images between disparate Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems in real time, and provides the critical first step in allowing the healthcare community to communicate electronically through secure messaging specifically designed to compliment clinical workflow.”

iMedicor’s technology provides physicians, healthcare providers and patients with the capability of transporting medical records in a manner that eliminates the risk of them being intercepted or altered. The portal, which also provides physicians with a social and professional referral network and access to continuing medical education programs, is available to health care organizations, professionals and patients free of charge at www.imedicor.com...."

Yesterday we met with their leadership and talked about their technology, their approach to medical record storage and transmission, and their solution for the challenges of interoperability. Next week we'll share what we learned, covering iMedicor's interface, their tools for physicians, and their strategy to make money on this free service.

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Monday, June 1, 2009

"Natural Interactions for Medical Image Analysis"

Jannes Peters is a recent successful defender of his Master's Thesis in Interaction Design at Umea Institute of Design in Sweden, where he focused on computer interfaces for browsing and manipulating radiological images and patient information. As part of his research, some of it done in cooperation with Philips Design Healthcare, Jannes created a prototype system called Nexight that uses two interface modalities for different tasks - a multi-touch screen for browsing and 2D analysis, and a three dimensional tool for getting acquainted with volumetric data. Below are a couple videos demonstrating the components that Jannes believes provide a more natural interface to clinical data:

Here's the multi-touch 2D interface:

And here's the prototype 3D analysis tool:

For more and the entire thesis paper, head on to Jannes Peters' blog...

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Hospital Tracking System from Versus Technologies

Dr. Bill Crounse over at his Microsoft Health Blog has brought to our attention a radio tracking technology from Versus Technology, a company out of Traverse City, Michigan. Using clip-on RFID devices, the company's system does comprehensive tracking of patients and equipment and can provide live utilization information on different levels.