【iPod】I use my iPod to store medical images

原來iPod也可以這樣用的唷，不只是可以聽音樂，用途還是很廣的唷！難怪目前iPod這麼風行也不是沒有原因的，看來Creative, Sony要多加把勁才能在市場上繼續生存囉！

The problem is equipment which can view and manipulate these images is not widely available. It's not just radiologists -- who usually have access to this sort of equipment -- who rely on images. A whole lot of medical experts use evidence based on data and we need tools for that.

We wanted to create something for non-radiologists to use, for surgeons or general physicians to view images.

CDs aren't big enough, memory sticks are not big enough, but I had my iPod, which has 40GB of memory just there. We rigged the software so that you can click to store the images on the iPod, and subsequently view them in Osirix directly from the iPod.

After we figured out that the iPods were a practical way of carrying these images, Apple brought out the photo iPod a few months later. That meant the images could also be viewed on the devices.

There are things we have in place to ensure security and patient confidentiality. There are rules to go by. It's not the tools that pose a security risk -- it's the users. The software has a function that enables the physician to strip the image of any personal data that identifies the person, like their name, their date of birth etc. As long as that is done then it is a secure, anonymous system.