Originally published on JS PACS, April 21, 2010.
iPads and imaging, what an exciting platform that will be when it develops. How many of you out there have your iPad yet? I have mine and I am eagerly awaiting some quality PACS applications for this new platform. OsiriX has the iPhone app, but as of today they haven’t written it to take advantage of the iPad’s great screen, and the iPhone app enlarged on the iPad just doesn’t cut it. I haven’t tried the Merge application on the iPad yet. I do have it on the iPhone and wasn’t overly impressed with its proprietary nature, and I won’t even consider trying it on the iPad until Merge puts out an iPad-specific application.
If you have your PACS viewers available on Citrix, you are already a good portion of the way there. We don’t support remote viewing over Citrix, so I can’t view images that way, but it is amusing to see a Windows application running on the iPad through Citrix. It is also nice to have access to the EMR through the iPad. We are a MediTech shop and it runs very nicely over the iPad Citrix receiver.
The iPad makes VPN configuration a simple process, and I think many organizations can expect to see an increasing number of requests to hook iPads into the system. We are preparing for it and are even considering offering some limited level of support for the OS X platform now that this new tool has come out.
Another way I am looking to use the iPad is for dashboards. How great would it be to walk the halls with all of your imaging systems’ data right in the palm of your hand? Many web-based dashboard viewers are already primed to be viewed on the iPad, but remember that the iPad runs Apple’s Safari browser and some systems just don’t run right on it (I don’t blame that on Safari, though).
There are numerous ways to use the iPad in healthcare, especially in imaging. How are you using, or how would you use, the iPad in your daily activities?