… a great technology discussion will occur. This week I was in seeing my eye doctor. During our session I commented on some new equipment I noticed in his office. This triggered a very interesting discussion about his desire to digitally capture eye images and store them, at least short term, as part of the patient records system. 

 

What amazed me was part 2 of the discussion which focused on all of the technology and business related challenges he had encountered. The original special (and expensive) microscope purchased for this purpose is still not working – the hook up is not straight forward and a long string of broken support promises from the vendor involved.

 

Further investigation into alternatives uncovered all kinds of interesting information – unbelievable price gauging in a relatively small and controlled marketplace, potential uses of other more reasonably priced cameras which seemed promising but these devices did not interface to the original expensive microscope, at least easily. 

 

What about other alternatives? I through out the idea of using a USB microscope for the task if the resolution and functionality specs could be met. I pictured a device something  like the Proscope which we have used with good success in our classrooms for science curriculum delivery. This notion sparked some interest, and will be investigated further.

 

The last part of our discussion hit on the storage and integration component. The computer in his office is a high end MAC. One would anticipate this computer would easily handle the graphic and interface requirements. The patient system in the office is a multi user  based system. I could not determine if it was written for windows or some other environment with my over the counter observations as the screens did not appear to be a standard Windows environment and looked almost DOS like. Hmmmm. More general discussion ensued regarding what a better integration package might look like. 

 

Who knows where this will all go, but it was a very interesting eye appointment!

 

~ Mark