Japan medics bring high-tech fixes to Philippines typhoon
The technology, which was developed after the huge tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, allows doctors to take a look inside patients instantly
Japanese medics working to help victims of the Philippines typhoon have deployed wireless mobile X-ray kits using tablet computers, a world first in a disaster zone, a team spokesman said on Saturday.
The technology, which was developed after the huge tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, allows doctors to take a look inside patients instantly, and even lets them enlarge the image with familiar iPad gestures.
Joji Tomioka, coordinator of the Japan Medical Team for Disaster Relief, said the system had been created in response to what doctors needed in the aftermath of the Japanese disaster.
“This is the first time that we are deploying it in a disaster situation,” Tomioka said at a modern tent medical clinic put up by the Japanese government to help victims of typhoon Haiyan, which crashed through the central Philippines more than a week ago.
At the partly air-conditioned clinic in the ruined city of Tacloban, a radiologist placed a camera on the chest of 72-year-old Carlos Llosa as he sat in his wheelchair.
The X-ray image was instantaneously transmitted through a wireless router to an iPad and to a nearby laptop.