It’s no secret that technology is constantly evolving behind the elusive doors of this nation’s operating rooms. In order to provide the best possible care to achieve the most desirable outcomes for increasingly complex medical disparities, physicians are continuously attempting to predict future needs of patients and of course, medical technology. Following the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, pioneering physicians at teaching hospitals instituted the use of such mobile assistive devices for the purpose of gaining access to patient health records from any location within the hospital versus on-unit with the traditional paper chart. Next began the use of the iPad at bedside for the ...view middle of the document...
Less complex questions by both physicians and lay users in the public concern the sensitivity of the touchscreen or lack thereof to gloved fingers; which field trials with double-gloved fingers of surgeons have minimized to the surprise of many. To date, the limited research available has demonstrated that the current and projected capabilities of the iPad trump any hesitant or doubting minds (Wodajo 20).
The most basic and simplistic proposal for the inception of the iPad into the operating room would be real-time, remote monitoring of vital signs pre-, intra-, and post-operatively. Remote, real-time capabilities would also permit medical students, residents, and physicians off-site to ‘stand-in’ on procedures for training and/or consultation (Wodajo 339-341). The compact nature of the iPad with its built-in camera, large storage capacity, and zoom-in/-out features would also permit physicians to not only obtain intra-operative photos, but disclose said photos to the patient and family members-at the patient’s discretion- postoperatively. Such capability would assist with patient explanations of findings, results, repairs, and other pertinent patient education (Wodajo 20-22).
On a more complex level, the iPad would assist surgeons with intraoperative visualization and navigation of organs, tissues, vasculature, and nervous systems. In a minute number of operating rooms across the globe, select surgeons are utilizing the iPad as a ‘mapping’ device to project a multi-dimensional overlay of the underlying human anatomy. Such ability would assist surgeons, the world over, with...
