A few thoughts from a tumor surgeon

Test driving the iPad in the operating room

June 16, 2010 at 3:53 am 3 comments

cross posted from www.imedicalapps.com

Recently, I tried out the iPad in the operating room. The big question was will the iPad will work in the sterile environment of the operating room ?

The short answer is yes !

A simple xray cassette sterile bag, ubiquitous in the OR, holds an iPad comfortably. Once the iPad is inserted in the plastic bag by the circulating nurse, the top of the bag is cut off, folded back and clamped with a hemostat (see above image). The iPad can now be safely brought into the sterile field.

Importantly, the iPad touchscreen works quite well through the plastic bag, even while wearing gloves. Somehow, the touch of the plastic bag itself against the glass screen registers as a valid touch. I had no problems navigating between and inside apps or with gestures such as pinch and zoom.

This was somewhat of a surprise since, as many people have noticed (see our review of Pogo Sketch), using an iPhone touch screen with gloves is very difficult at best, and impossible if one is double gloved.

What is the use of an iPad in the OR ? The reasons are myriad but generally speaking, the same features which make the iPad great for surfing the web, looking at images and viewing video also make it a potential hit in the operating room.

Where I can see the iPad being an asset in the OR will be the ability to bring in relevant medical imaging directly to the operative site, the ability to review relevant anatomy at the point of care (an understatement) and the opportunity to enhance resident teaching. Also, the ability to access the 3G network provides the ability to bypass the typical hospital’s restricted network in order to access remote files and office EMRs.

Entry filed under: news. Tags: iPad, operating room, sterile.