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How Tech Saves Lives

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Software in Medical Imaging



Image-processing software used in medical systems are vastly different from commercial image-manipulation software like video software
Hardware in Medical Imaging



From image acquisition to processing and viewing, CT and MRI scanning use very high-end computing equipment
Computers and the Dentist



Innovations in dental instruments are leading to less time in the dental chair, causing less discomfort and giving more satisfying results
Homoeopathy Needs Software



The principles of homoeopathy easily lend themselves to the creation of software for prescriptions
Machine in Man



Prof Kevin Warwick is human with embedded parts
Simulated Surgery



Traditionally, a surgeon’s skills are developed on animals, cadavers and patients. Due to ethical reasons, however, this is being replaced by simulated training
Remote Medicine



Still in its infancy, telemedicine relies heavily on computing and telecommunications to deliver expert help to far away places
What the Doctor Ordered



Medical transcription was the first of the BPO initiatives to come to India. But, overcapacity and technology advances killed what could have been a golden goose
Virtual Superspecialists Near You
@ Indraprastha Apollo
@ AIIMS
Measuring your Aura



Kirlian cameras that capture the aura around an object produce photos and videos that can be directly recorded on to a PC
Biorhythms



Human conditions and responses are cyclic in nature says those who believe in biorhythms
Medical Imaging with Syngo



Advanced software for acquiring, processing, and archiving medical images from different sources
Medical Books Go mobile 



Doctors can carry medical books on their PDAs for quick referencing 
Enhancing Medical Equipment



Computers can be used with basic medical equipment to enhance their functions
Hospital Management with MEDICUS



It has a user-friendly interface and also comes with a multimedia help feature

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The visible human project marries some macabre “surgery” with powerful workstations and supercomputers to create a database of the human anatomy. Marrying this to growth, response and knowledge databases could, somewhere in the future, create a virtual, fully digital human

How would it be if there were a complete digital representation of the human body? You would be able to understand diseases or practice complex surgeries before doing them live. You could simulate the reactions of the human body to external stimuli like a vehicle crash. The amount of detail you would need of the human body for doing all this is enormous. The visible human project marries some macabre “surgery” with powerful workstations and supercomputers to deliver this.

In fact, there are four visible humans. A male and a female in the US, and a male each in South Korea and China. The US projects came first and are the most documented. The Korean project came next and finally came the visible Chinese.

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The first visible human was created by the US National Library of Medicine, or rather the first visible human database was created there, with work starting in 1986. The exact process of creating the database provides for unsavory reading (see box Slicing them up).

The images thus created represent a huge database, which is not of much use as is. It is here that powerful workstations, visualizing software and supercomputers step in. Many offshoots of this project have successfully created animations, walkthroughs and simulations of the human body (see examples on this month’s CD).

A fully-functional, virtual human being could well be just one big step away.

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Krishna Kumar

Slicing them up

The

weak at heart may want to skip this box.

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The visible human database is created in a rather macabre fashion.

The first male was a 39-year old American, executed by lethal

injection in Texas. The female was a 59-year old woman who died of a

heart attack. Both bodies were donated to medical research, by the

man before he died and by the woman’s husband.

The dead bodies (cadavers) were thoroughly CT and MRI scanned and

also X-Rayed. They were then encased in blue Gelatin, and frozen.

They were then physically sliced. The male cadaver was sliced into

one millimeter thick slices while the female was sliced into slices

a third of a millimeter thick. Each slice was photographed.

The Visible Korea Human is also done at 1 mm thickness, while the

visible Chinese male is done at 0.1 mm thickness.

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