iPad Tablet Device Debuts in the Operating Room

A recent column written by a surgeon at Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA) has revealed that the popular iPad device is becoming a regular presence among the operating room (OR) staff.

With its large screen and networking capabilities, the iPad, a tablet computer designed and developed by Apple (Cupertino, CA, USA) permits real-time access to X-rays, computerized tomography (CT scans), and laboratory data. Thus, the integration of the iPad into the clinical setting, both in wards and in the OR, help eliminate guesswork by allowing immediate access to key patient information. Data can even be captured by the iPad during surgical procedures and appropriate photographs shared with the patient afterward. Other potential assets of utilizing the iPad in the OR include the ability to review relevant anatomy at the point of care and enhancement to resident teaching.

The iPad can also be useful in bypassing hospitals' restrictive networks to access remote files and office electronic medical records (EMRs) using cellular 3G networks. Potentially, a future iPad-like based device might use onboard gyroscopes to provide an "augmented reality" view of internal structures, so that tilting the device would show different portions of the body. This could even conceivably be integrated with views from internal cameras, navigation systems, or robotically controlled surgical instruments. The column was published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of Surgical Radiology.

"The iPad clearly has the potential to be very useful in the hospital and in the operating theater," said author orthopedic surgeon Felasfa Wodajo, MD. "The same features which make the iPad great for surfing the web, such as looking at images and viewing video, nicely translate into the operating room."

To use the iPad in the OR theatre, it is inserted into a sterile nylon bag, which is then folded over and the opening clamped shut with a hemostat. The touch-screen, although unresponsive when used directly with latex gloves, responds much better when used with the nylon bag mediating the touch.

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