IPHONE DIAGNOSIS
ANCHOR LEAD: THE IPHONE HAS A NEW AP AS AN AID TO DIAGNOSIS, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
That wonder of electronic devices, the iPhone, now has a new gig: it can enable radiologists to accurately diagnose acute appendicitis from a remote location, a study led by Johns Hopkins radiologist Asim Choudhri has shown. ChoudHri says the device or another handheld can facilitate consultations among physicians not physically in the same hospital.
CHOUDHRI: A lot of times these CT scans can be tricky to interpret. In a training setting, someone may want to ask a faculty member who’s not immediately available, or a subspecialist who’s not at the hospital at that time. We thought that using an iPhone would be a way to get that immediate consultation from people who are not near a computer. And then once the diagnosis is made, sending the information to a surgeon would allow them to look at the images also and figure out how they hope to treat it. :30
Acute appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency, Choudhri says. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
