Medical images on iPhone

Heart Imaging Technologies (HeartIT) today announced a new service that enables physicians to simply click on a Web link sent via email and enter a password to instantly view movies of a patient's beating heart from across the globe on Apple's iPhone. "Viewing medical images traditionally requires dedicated workstations costing tens of thousands of dollars, which in turn are connected to proprietary picture archiving communications and storage (PACS) systems costing millions of dollars more. In order to view medical images, physicians must literally drive or walk to one of these workstations. Recent advances in World Wide Web browser technologies and the Web sites that utilize their rich features, collectively referred to as Web 2.0, are challenging these expensive and cumbersome proprietary approaches." Medical images displayed in a Web browser have historically remained low quality which limits their diagnostic usefulness. The new technology enables physicians to "drill-down" and view medical images, including movies, on Apple's iPhone.

"Patient privacy is obviously a critically-important issue on the internet," said Brent Reed, HeartIT's Director of Software Development. "Fortunately, medical privacy concerns can be addressed using the same encryption technologies employed by online banking and credit card transactions."

by MacNN Staff