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iPad anyone?

berkshire_rider

Growler
Feb 5, 2003
2,552
10
The Blackstone Valley
what do you base this on?

my wife reads quite a bit, and she loves her kindle. being able to lug around a 600 pg book in a small, compact electronic device is pretty nice.
Not everyone does. A lot of people still want books with actual pages. There's only a fraction of titles available in e-book formats. How well does a Kindle or Sony reader work when it's extremely hot or cold? How is your eye fatigue after staring at a screen for 3-4 hours? DRM - you can't necessarily loan your copy to your friends after you finished it. Have to keep the battery charged, worry about it getting stolen, dropping and breaking it.

They have a place in the market, they just aren't replacing all actual books or closing book stores in the foreseeable future.
 

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,713
8,731
Still searching for a use for the iPad? Well, I just submitted the below to one of the radiology conferences for the upcoming year. I'm particularly proud of the opening lines (see "Background") :D

Applications of Apple Computer's iPad and other tablet computing devices in diagnostic radiology

Toshi said:
Project Title: Applications of Apple Computer's iPad and other tablet computing devices in diagnostic radiology

Category: Applied Science Presentation, Informatics, New Technologies (e.g. Mobile Computing)

Authors:

Toshimasa J Clark, MD, Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow, New York
Victor J Scarmato, MD, Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow, New York
Steven Lev, MD, Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow, New York

Background

Gene Roddenberry likely did not have reading rooms in mind when he created Star Trek. Nevertheless, his vision of wireless tablet-like devices displaying detailed anatomical/functional data of injured Federation crewmembers may greatly affect the future practice of radiology. We hypothesize that ongoing technological advances such as Apple Computer's iPad may even yield applications in diagnosis of and preliminary report generation on acute disease processes.

Evaluation

To investigate our hypothesis we create an abstract model of the components required to view a study and generate a diagnostic report. We then assess whether the unique challenges of interpretation of various modalities' studies may be adequately addressed. Components of our model: display performance; network connectivity; DICOM visualization; report generation; RIS interface; and data security.

Discussion

The iPad's display resolution is 1024x768x24-bit color, allowing for adequate display of CT and MRI studies. Network access speed through 802.11n WiFi would be roughly comparable to 100 Mbps Ethernet. OsiriX, an open source DICOM visualizer with advanced capabilities, will be available soon for the iPad. CoActiv Medical's Exam-PACS enables secure DICOM queries in OsiriX. Dragon Dictation supplemented by a specialized radiologic dictionary would allow for voice dictation of reports. We also propose a hybrid interface wherein the touchscreen would be used to select relevant findings/measurements, with free text entry reserved for complex entities. Merge Healthcare's eFilm Mobile enables RIS/HIS interface (access to worklists). Finally, data security/HIPAA compliance would be ensured by 128-bit SSL connections and passcode encryption of all data, features of iPhone OS 4.0.

Conclusion

We find that our hypothesis that tablet computing devices such as the iPad may find applications in diagnostic radiology to be well supported. The individual components that we theorize to be necessary to implement a complete report-generation system exist now or imminently. With radiologists' guidance and input, a software developer could conceivably incorporate these technologies into an FDA-approved application that might revolutionize the field.
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
65
behind the viewfinder
Not everyone does. A lot of people still want books with actual pages. There's only a fraction of titles available in e-book formats. How well does a Kindle or Sony reader work when it's extremely hot or cold? How is your eye fatigue after staring at a screen for 3-4 hours? DRM - you can't necessarily loan your copy to your friends after you finished it. Have to keep the battery charged, worry about it getting stolen, dropping and breaking it.

They have a place in the market, they just aren't replacing all actual books or closing book stores in the foreseeable future.
well i admit i haven't done the surveying you have, but everyone i know w/ a Kindle loves it. there's zero eye fatigue since you are not reading a screen, but electronic ink. it's not backlit, it's exactly like reading a printed page, and one that you can automatically change the font size, speaking of eye fatigue.

extreme cold...how often do you read books in the extreme cold? the Kindle handles the beach just fine. not sure what charge time it gets, but it's pretty good, and you can download books on the fly as long as there's a signal.


the Kindle won't eliminate bookstores much like record stores still exist despite iTunes. but it's just gonna get more popular.
 

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,713
8,731
Jessica and I went to the local Apple Store to play with an iPad today. The store was mobbed and they were sold out of units. We ended up engrossed in exploring the demo apps on the device for a solid 75 minutes.

:thumb:

That said we won't be plunking down any cash for one. Too expensive in its first iteration, and would greatly benefit from forward- and back-facing cameras + videoconferencing built in over 3G. That would be a killer app, imo.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,750
26,975
media blackout
Not everyone does. A lot of people still want books with actual pages. There's only a fraction of titles available in e-book formats. How well does a Kindle or Sony reader work when it's extremely hot or cold? How is your eye fatigue after staring at a screen for 3-4 hours? DRM - you can't necessarily loan your copy to your friends after you finished it. Have to keep the battery charged, worry about it getting stolen, dropping and breaking it.

They have a place in the market, they just aren't replacing all actual books or closing book stores in the foreseeable future.
my brother in law's parents - both doctors that will be retiring soon - each have a kindle and LOVE it. One of the things they like about it the most is that when they're traveling, they can just take their kindle and not have to lug around 3 - 5 books.