Hospital Operator Demos Health Care Application For Microsoft Surface

Not too long ago I spent a few minutes doing some protein folding on a Microsoft Surface unit, was pretty awesome. Easy enough to disinfect too with spray and you can wear gloves too.

Of course this could also be used to view records as well as images. Well as much as I have been talking about PHRs of late, you could even log in to the HealthVault for that matter and check and re-arrange records as needed too. There is a demo unit for the HealthVault on Surface, but I did not have time to go everywhere I wanted with the unit, perhaps next time. BD

Often, patients have a difficult time envisioning the complicated medical procedures doctors are trying to explain. A large Texas health care provider is hoping that Microsoft's tabletop touch-screen Surface computers can help patients better understand their doctors. Texas Health Resources, which operates 13 hospitals in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, is working with Microsoft to build health-care applications for Microsoft's multiuser, multitouch Surface computers. Among the first Surface applications being co-developed by THR and Microsoft is a patient-doctor relationship tool that's being demonstrated this week in San Diego as a "proof of concept" during a Gartner health care summit.

The proposed application will allow doctors to share with patients all kinds of digital content, including medical images like MRIs, X-rays, EKGs, radiology reports, and also streaming media content, such as video of coronary angiogram procedures. The goal is to help patients better understand their medical condition, doctor recommendations, and potential medical procedures so that they can in turn make better decisions about their health.

The Surface table devices would be used in THR doctor offices and possibly in patient consultation areas of its hospitals.

The team is also considering ways to make this digital content available via the Internet to patients after they leave the health care providers' offices, said Marx. "We'd like to make this portable."