Doctors reached the same diagnosis by phone as when on a terminal in 94% of trials
Experts have been skeptical about the usefulness of using a small screen
The FDA is currently deliberating on whether to approve the app to use U.S.
when a patient suffers from an acute stroke, the outcome often based on the speed with which they receive expert care.
Now, using a medical application for the iPhone or Android, physicians don't need to be in a hospital to diagnose a stroke patient and begin to prescribe treatment.
Specialists can determine how to treat strokes based on images of brain-scan examined in their smartphones with almost the same accuracy when using a full diagnostic workstation, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Calgary.
"Now that they can make a distant expert to focus on the problem," said Ross Mitchell, medical professor at the University of Canada who worked on the study. "It is huge, huge rewards to be had here."
Medical experts were skeptical of the help of a screen of 3.5 inches, such as on an iPhone, for diagnostics of emergency. But thanks to the progress of the compression of image, microprocessors and bandwidth of wireless data, smartphone could to be, such as pagers, an essential tool for physicians on the thumb.
The app is called ResolutionMD Mobile and can be downloaded via the App Store for iPhone and iPad or on the market of mobile phones running the Google Android software. It is already used by some neuro-radiological specialists in hospitals in Europe, said Byron Osing, CEO of Calgary scientific.
IPhone application poster brain-scan of the images in high resolution on the iPhone 4.In a telephone interview, Osing said his company develops software and technology to manufacturers of equipment, including Siemens AG licenses.
Process of science Calgary takes pictures of a machine of tomography (CT) scanning, it feeds a companion server, which then compresses the data, so it can be transmitted in high quality on the Internet. The information can be streamed to a mobile app or a Web browser, where physicians can zoom in on and manipulate images of brain-scan.
In the technology sector, this is called virtualization, or, in terms of cosy, with the cloud. The concept is not unlike services that allow that you draw a window on your computer laptop home that resembles the desktop at work or a stream of music on the Web.
That compression method is crucial for high resolution brain imaging in sensitive situations more quickly, both because it allows to be loaded much said Osing.
"If you have only access to 3 G and Wi - Fi, it would take an hour to download one of these images," said Osing. "Digital images are huge, and they get bigger and bigger and bigger each year.."
For the study, the researchers ran the app on an iPhone 3GS, which produces a little choppy images. IPhone of Apple 4 had not yet come out, but the researchers later discovered that the experience is almost without fault on this most recent model, said Mitchell, Professor. He is also scientific founder Calgary scientific and an investor in the company.
The Mayo Clinic, the Organization of medical research, widely respected tested ResolutionMD Mobile in some parts of Arizona and is enthusiastic about the program, according to a report in the IOC Executive trade publication.
"It is to save lives in rural Arizona," Mitchell said. "Patients are treated remotely, and they remain remote."
The program has won regulatory approval in Europe and the Canada, mais did not yet get the OK from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Approval process FDA the duration approximately two years a scientific Calgary and Osing said he thinks that it's almost the finish line. A spokesman for the FDA has not responded to a request for comments.
The Mitchell report, which has been peer reviewed and published this month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, should provide adequate to push research approval from the FDA on the final obstacles, said Osing. The study asked two neuro-radiologists to evaluate 190 images for possible signs of stroke. They reached the same diagnosis using a phone as when on a terminal in at least 94% of trials.
This person was before administering the treatment of stroke, a doctor must know what type of stroke, because using the wrong medication can be fatal. It is a specialist is usually called examine CT scans.
But many small town hospitals do not have expertise to share. Most crucial: the effectiveness of the drugs is reduced by half every 15 minutes the patient is waiting, Mitchell said.
So Mitchell came the idea of the app. Despite his colleagues saying that it was not practical to diagnose using a screen to hand, Mitchell led. Perhaps doctors would kiss his reasoning as a way to show images of the brain in 3D, to patients at their bedside.
But development quickly evolved. Now, the goal is to get nurses to walk into the hospital holding iPads instead of Clipboard and return home with an iPhone or Android in their pockets so they can examine images in minutesMitchell said.
"People said to me, Oh,"this is SCI - FI!"" No, it is no longer, "said Mitchell. "It's here now." We built the technology, and it works.
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