COOL TOOLS
Doctors on call
Story by Laura Ly
Cell phones are typically used for making calls, playing games, or texting, but did you know they can also be used for looking at remote medical images? Thanks to Dr. Ross Mitchell, doctors can now use their iPhones to view medical scans and determine treatment for patients—without being in a hospital.
Dr. Mitchell and his company, Calgary Scientific Inc., are the creators of ResMD Mobile. ResMD Mobile is the iPhone version of ResMD, technology that allows medical professionals to securely view medical images of distant patients using any computer that has internet access. Now, doctors can use ResMD Mobile to view high-quality medical images and perform advanced visualizations, such as reconstructing a three -dimensional image of the patient, anywhere they have cell phone coverage. ResMD Mobile allows doctors to treat patients anywhere and at any time while away from the hospital.
"For example, imagine you're a stroke doctor on call on the weekend. You get a call and are asked to look at a scan of a patient at a hospital ER [emergency room]. You take out your iPhone and launch ResMD Mobile. You could select the most recent scans for that patient—fresh off the CT [computed tomography] or MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scanner—and, within seconds, interactively look at 2-D or 3-D images of that patient's brain. You determine whether there is a blocked artery and if there is, you can tell the ER to start treatment while you make your way to the hospital," explains Dr. Mitchell. ResMD Mobile ensures that patients receive timely and efficient treatment—regardless of where the medical experts are located, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "doctor on call."
ResMD Mobile was recently released for download through iTunes, and was approved for clinical use by Health Canada.