Why the XBox Kinect may trump the iPad in medicine
Topics: Information Technology
March 25, 2011
Although Apple's iPad presents interesting possibilities for mobile health and care delivery, some experts predict that Microsoft's new XBox Kinect may provide more open-ended opportunities that could revolutionize medicine.
iPad: Many benefits, but still a narrowly defined tool
Many physicians have embraced the iPad tablet computer, which can ease providers' access to electronic health records, help them review medical images and share information with patients during visits.
The devices, which retail for several hundred dollars, are also widely praised for their ease-of-use and extensive functionality. However, some consumer electronics experts note that the iPad—while encouraging widespread adoption of tablet computers—has not significantly advanced consumer technology.
Kinect's motion-capture ability thought to have broader potential
Meanwhile, Microsoft's Kinect is a motion-sensing controller used with the XBox 360 gaming system; it retails for $150 and Guinness World Records has named it the world's fastest-selling consumer electronic device.
Kinect works by recognizing and detecting movement using a depth-sensing camera that projects a grid of intra-red beams. The hands-free system offers users gesture control and "broader opportunities for people to redesign their work experience, at a consumer price level," Forbes' "Re:thinking Innovation" reports.
Kinect is an example of how consumer technology may be driving workplace technology in health care. When Kinect first launched in June 2010, FierceMobileHealthcare's Neil Versel wrote that "the Kinect is taking the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad flip motion and moving it to the TV screen, while also apparently getting rid of a serious problem with such devices in health care settings, namely infection control."
For example, physicians at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto now use the Kinect to review CT and MRI scans during procedures without leaving the "sterile field" around the operating table. According to a surgical oncologist at Sunnybrook, it can take a physician up to 20 minutes to clean-up per image—sometimes adding an extra hour to surgery.
Meanwhile, University of Washington students are finding ways to use Kinect to create 3-D maps of patients that can be used in robotic surgeries, and researchers at the Virtopsy research program in Switzerland are developing ways to use the system during virtual autopsies. In addition, University of Minnesota researchers are using the Kinect to observe children who may have mental disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The product may also have applications in medical school classrooms. After the product became commercially available in November, the Sector: Public blog noted that the Kinect could "display virtual patients that are interacted with through motion-sensing" (Shaughnessy, "Re:thinking Innovation," Forbes, 3/22; AP/NECN, 3/14; Taylor, TG Daily, 3/23; Nafziger, DOTmed News, 3/21).
