
A doctor in Germany turned to an iPad for assistance in completing a sensitive liver surgery on a patient recently, sparking ample discussion about the future of mobile technology in the operating room.
The procedure - which used the support of Apple's tablet to access and visualize planning data - was hailed as one of the first surgeries of its kind in the nation.
Developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, this procedure in question helps to "locate critical structures," which include tumors and vessels. If all continues to develop as planned, this resource may vastly improve the quality of transferring pre-operational resection plans into actual surgery, Reuters reports.
In other words, attending surgeons can use the iPad to snap a pic of the liver and then use augment reality to overlay critical information upon the liver, giving them a clear outline of where the aforementioned "structures" are.
Although the iPad is just now finding its way into the OR, there's an excellent possibility - if not probability - that tablets will soon be as customary in surgical procedures as scalpels.
Source: Reuters
Message