How Sweden takes touch pad technology to a new advanced level - Bodies examined with unique touch pad technology

Monday, 17 September 2012
Sweden is unique in that when it needs to do something, it does it big. As the country continues to unleash its technology prowess, a new and unique approach in medical technology has been revealed.

A unique Swedish invention, which also gives the country leadership in that sector in the world, makes it possible to examine the bodies virtually using the 3D approach.

This was displayed in Linköping recently, as Swedish television reports that it can now not only perform virtual autopsies, but it can also be used to carry out a detailed study of living people from the inside.

Studies of patients with tools such as CT and MRI provide large amounts of information on how each one looks like inside the bodies. We are different from each other as much on the inside as on the outside. But it has been difficult to show all the information in a way that was understandable to more than specialists in radiology. This technology is therefore a means to answer that missing question which is also a breakthrough.
The researchers at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, in  Linköping (CMIV), discovered the new approach by borrowing technology from video games and developed a medical table that looks more like a giant touchpad. The touchpad has now made that Sweden is a world leader in examining virtual cells, with high resolution and detail. On the table, one can choose if they want to see the muscles, soft tissues or other parts of the body.

"We can use it to diagnose living patients and one can also follow the treatments and ensure that the medication is effective," says Anders Persson, Professor and Head of the CMIV, to Swedish television.

In the CMIV, so far between 300 and 400 virtual autopsies on people in the region where the cause of death was unclear have been carried out. The approach makes it possible that cells can be examined without opening them or via a major operation.

The technology "has attracted much international attention. However, the virtual autopsies may also be a way to improve the quality of Swedish health care" says Anders Persson.

According to Persson, many death certificates in the past have been wrong. "If one look at every death certificate today many may be incorrect. The new technique could therefore be used much more in health care and I think it will eventually."
By Scancomark.com Team