Wednesday, 9 January 2008

The ultimate Radiology keyboard of the future?

The Optimus Keyboard is a keyboard with OLED keys. That basically means that each key on the keyboard is a miniature screen that can display icons, text, etc.
Can you image in future when this technology becomes more affordable it could very well be used by radiology for PACS systems.
The Radiologist will no longer have to remember short cut keys, because they will be displayed dynamically on the keyboard depending on the screen they are on.
For instance on a work list screen there may be some icons displayed on the keyboard indicating things like:
  • Move patient
  • Delete Patient
  • Edit Patient
  • etc.
But when the Radiologist is in Viewing mode there may be buttons that display icons for
  • Next slice
  • previous slice
  • render 3D
  • annotation
  • exit viewer
  • etc.
The implementation of such a keyboard could mean a much shorter training period as the radiologists will have all the relevant buttons displayed to them directly on their keyboards.
Now all that radiology needs is a standard set of icons that is universal to all PACS systems and the learning curve between systems will be much shorter!

Check out the video here
Some more information and demos as well as some other concept keyboards being developed.