Seeing Stroke with a Phone

Doctors were 90% accurate diagnosing stroke using an iPhone application

(RxWiki News) Cell phones are not just for making calls or sending texts anymore. We can use them to find a restaurant, to look up that actor's name that was in that one movie with that one lady, or even to deposit our checks.

Now, doctors can use their phone to identify a stroke. When using a certain iPhone application, doctors were over 90 percent accurate in their diagnoses of stroke.

Doctors can quickly and easily look at images of patients' brains using an iPhone application called Resolution MD. This application helps doctors give a stroke diagnosis that is just as accurate as if they used a medical computer workstation.

"The iPhone can help diagnose stroke."

There are a few medical imaging applications for the iPhone. While these other applications can take 10 to 20 minutes to download the images, Resolution MD streams the images in real time. It can also be used at very long distances.

Time is extremely precious in medical emergencies, says Ross Mitchell, Ph.D, from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine. Doctors need to know as soon as possible if someone has suffered a stroke.

The iPhone application gives doctors a quick way to look at brain images, allowing them to rapidly respond and treat stroke victims.

The Study

  • Neuro-radiologists looked at 120 noncontrast computed tomography (NCCT) brain scans and 70 computed tomography angiogram (CTA) head scans
  • Two neuro-radiologists read the images on a medical diagnostic workstation and on an iPhone
Review Date: 
May 9, 2011