Radiology Atlas for iPhone and iPod touch: Joslin Chest Atlas

I met Jeremy Joslin while attending the NEJM Horizons Conference in October 2008 and was impressed by his drive to change the way medical education is delivered. His idea of an ideal medical information tool was "a robot that sits on my shoulder all day while I am seeing patients and collects information. Then during my 30-minute commute home, I can ask him: "What would an expert do for this patient with new-onset Afib?," and it can make an MP3 of the discussion." Jeremy has not created this robot (yet) but his first step in this direction is impressive nevertheless:

The Joslin Chest Atlas is the first interactive Radiology Atlas for the iPhone and iPod touch



"By combining hundreds of clinician-years with iPhone magic, the Joslin Chest Atlas is able to provide a quite comprehensive atlas of common and uncommon radiographic findings of the chest.

Built with the medical student and resident in mind, this atlas demonstrates and quizzes you on must-know findings such as Hampton’s Hump, Kerley B lines, pneumomediastinum and more.

To make the magic sauce complete, we’ve expounded on each finding, providing a built-in link to Wikipedia and a hard-coded Google link to find out more.

Now that’s what we call osmotically-active software for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

Features Listing:
- 50+ radiographic findings in the chest
- Links to Wikipedia to read about each finding
- Tips for reading each finding
- High-resolution images with zoom in and out
- Quiz mode to test your reading abilities
- Pointers to identify features of each finding
- Send feedback, bug reports, or voice mail feedback from your iPhone
- Send iTunes App Store link to a friend from the app
- Frequent upgrades and new images
- Contribute your own images and get credit for your efforts

We need your help locating a radiograph that shows the Westermark sign! This rarely seen abnormality has resulted in a dearth of chest x-rays that are available (aka non-copyrighted) for us to include in the Joslin Chest Atlas. With your help, we can include this "phantom" sign into our program and thus, end the mystery that surrounds this finding. Think of this more like a bounty or treasure hunt, rather than an actual contest (some states and countries have weird rules about contests, and we don't feel like involving a team of lawyers). In exchange for your submission, we will reward you with $50.

Here are the rules:
- Send all submissions to contest@idiogenicosmoles.com
- Must be deemed as adequate quality. Generally, must be 640 pixels shortest side and not-overly compressed (uncompressed format is preferred if possible)
- Must be original film (not copyrighted) and not stolen off google images or such (we'll check!)
- Must be readily recognizable as Westermark Sign
- In case of multiple submissions, reward goes to first submitter with appropriate quality image. We reserve right to use any submitted film, however. In other words, if you send a poor image in before someone else sends in a great image, we may choose either at our discretion.
- Reward money paid via bank check.
- All decisions are final.
- Only 1 (one) bounty paid
- Deadline: April 1, 2009"

If you are interested in trying out and a writing a review for Joslin Chest Atlas, please contact me and I will email you one of the free codes Jeremy has provided me with.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the post, Ves. I am still working on that robot idea...

    ReplyDelete