14 DAY TRIAL // The applications that Apple includes with the iPhone are very general purpose and equally useful to everyone. When Jobs announced that development for the iPhone would be possible through the browser via Web 2.0 there was a silent uproar and a lot of grumbling that this is not a real development environment and that these are not real applications. Despite all this, each and every day, more and more applications that nobody could have predicted make their way to the device.
Such is the case of Heart Imaging Technologies (HeartIT) that has announced that its medical imaging can be viewed on the iPhone. Traditionally, viewing medial images required dedicated workstations costing tens of thousands of dollars, which in turn are connected to proprietary picture archiving communications and storage (PACS) systems costing millions of dollars more. In order to view medical images, physicians had to literally drive or walk to one of these workstations. Today all that is a thing of the past.
Using the iPhone, physicians can simply click on a web link sent via email by one of their colleagues, enter their password, and, for example, instantly view movies of a patient's beating heart halfway around the world. They can even put their colleagues on speakerphone and carry on a medical consultation while simultaneously browsing through the imaging results.
The iPhone offers a revolutionary new way of interacting both with the information and other people. While not of interest to the general public, innovative uses such as these have a big impact in saving lives. The iPhone has been presented and treated as a consumer device by the public at large, but forward thinking applications of technology such as this are constantly moving the device further along and showing that it can be much more. From healthcare to business mobility and entertainment, the potential of the iPhone is tremendous.