An iPhone application is now allowing doctors to diagnose a stroke with the same accuracy as a diagnosis from a medical computer workstation.
The new research from the University of Calgary looked at hundreds of brain and head scans that were acquired using two different methods.
The scans were evaluated by two neuro-radiologists on a medical diagnostic workstation and on an iPhone.
Researchers say that the iPhone App allowed for advanced visualization and showed it was between 94 percent and 100 percent accurate for diagnosing acute stroke when compared to the medical workstation.
The study was designed by Dr. Mayank Goyal, and involved the iPhone software technology originally developed by Dr. Ross Mitchell, PhD, and his team at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), then further enhanced and commercialized by Calgary Scientific Inc.
"In a medical emergency, medical imaging plays a critical role in diagnosis and treatment, time is critical in acute stroke care, every minute counts." said Dr. Mitchell who is from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine.
The technology is ideal for rural medical settings.
The App allows specialists real-time access to results regardless of where the physicians and patients are located.
Doctors will now have the ability to analyze and diagnose these images from virtually anywhere.
"We were pleasantly surprised at our ability to detect subtle findings on the CT scan, which are often very critical in patient management, using this software," said Dr. Goyal, "Another strength of this platform was its ability to handle massive imaging datasets of over 700 images seamlessly over the iPhone."
The application was approved by Health Canada in April 2010 and Canadian doctors can now legally make a primary diagnosis using the device.
To read the study visit the Journal of Medical Internet research website
For more information on the Hotchkiss Brain Institute visit their website.
