The Interventional Cardiology Institute at Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Hospital) has developed new technology that allows a patient and his or her family to watch on an iPad as an angioplasty is performed. The development is the first of its kind. The special project was initiated by Professor Ran Kornowski, head of the Interventional Cardiology Institute at Beilinson Hospital's Cardiology Division, with the goal of enabling patients and their families to watch the heart procedure as it is being performed. "This is a harbinger of a new era of medicine. Instead of giving complicated explanations to patients and their families over what an angioplasty is and what was done during the operation, I can show them the procedure in a visually detailed, clear, sharp, and professional way on the iPad," Kornowski said. He added, "This is a different kind of experience that enables us to 'create' medicine that everyone can understand. Through the experience of using an iPad, the discourse with the patient is transformed and even becomes clearer and more to the point. There is no need to use an array of descriptions and diagrams and the patient can delve into the 'what' instead of the 'how.'" The medical personnel at Rabin Medical Center also say that in addition to helping the patient understand his own procedure, the iPad application allows doctors to consult with medical staff from different departments, anywhere and at all times of the day, as well as allowing them to conduct measurements and check health levels directly on the screen of the device. Hospital doctors note that an angioplasty is a medical operation that provides accurate and detailed information on the activities of the heart and the state of the arteries that support it. The information obtained through the operation, according to the doctors, aids in determining an accurate diagnosis of the problem, thereby allowing doctors to select the most appropriate and effective treatment. The new application, the result of a collaboration between Rabin Medical Center and the McKesson company, enables surgeons to show patients and their families the medical procedure that was performed, in a professional, easy and visual format. "Through the application, information collected during the procedure is recorded, from the beginning stages of monitoring and measuring pressure inside the heart and injecting a contrast agent in order view blood vessels, up to the later stages of enlarging coronary arteries using balloon catheters. The software also allows patients to see training material and other information from before and after the procedure without them having to leave their sickbeds," Kornowski explained. He said that following the development of the application, new applications in the world of imaging - in X-Rays, CT scans, and MRIs - will also be developed in the near future.
iSurgery: At Israeli hospital, iPad is surgeons' newest tool
New technology developed at Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Hospital) enables patients and their families to watch, on an iPad, a live heart procedure • New application also allows doctors to easily consult with medical staff from other departments.
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