Late last week, IBM announced it was teaming up with the Mayo Clinic to improve medical imaging by using the Cell chip — a high-performance computer component which is used primarily inside the PlayStation 3 videogame console—to help doctors and radiologists more effectively track patients’ health and treatment.
At the present time, CT scanners are producing a growing number of medical images. This exponential growth is making it increasingly difficult for doctors and radiologists to accurately interpret the findings. The utility of IBM’s Cell Chip is that it can extract information from the multitude of CT scans and present it in a more useful manner to doctors.
For instance, by rapidly checking old scans against new ones, doctors can quickly detect if there has been change in a tumor for instance. This information, in turn, can help doctors either adjust treatment or, if neccessary, try alterantive ones.
What is significant about the technology is that it can do in minutes what it use to take doctors hours to do. Often, this time difference isn’t that big of a deal; but other times it can be the difference between life and death.
The use of the Cell chips is also a good example of a hospital “walking the escalator”—or using an existing technology in a new, innovative way. (Interested parties are also encouraged to read the article I wrote last year about 3M teaming up with the Mayo Clinic to employ RFID technology to better monitor biopsies.)
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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.
