Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
applications for mobile devices which in the past would only have been pos-
sible on large computers. This has resulted in a growing number of medical
applications of smart phones that assist physicians in accessing test results to
evaluate, for example, blood pressure records, electrocardiograms, blood
glucose, and pulmonary function or to monitor a fetal heart rate. Obstetricians
can even remotely monitor the heart rate of the fetus as well as that of the
mother. Such real-time monitoring enables tracking and intervention in cases
of chronic health conditions, improving patient outcomes. The simple use of
camera phones for imaging could also have a transforming effect of bringing
medical care to remote areas [75].
In biomedical research, chemists in particular may move from accessing
data in their electronic notebooks at the desktop computer to their tablet PCs
or their smart phones/devices. These mobile devices offer a window into how
scientists will operate in the future—such devices will further enhance the
provision of collaborative software to biomedical scientists, an existing limita-
tion being how much information one can show on current screen real estate.
Already there are numerous applications that run on smart phones and
tablet computers like the iPad. There has been a focus on chemistry tools (both
applications and mobile, browser-based access), many of which can be down-
loaded at no charge or purchased very cheaply. Applications bring kudos and
marketing value with dedicated platform functionality and allow offl ine usage.
Examples include laboratory assistants (stoichiometry calculators, equation
balancing, elemental formulas to mass), educational tools (periodic tables, fl ip
cards, questions and answers, study aids), structure drawing and viewing tools
for both small molecules and biomolecules, and look-up tools (e.g., chemical
reactions, Wikipedia, chemistry database searching) [76]. Scientifi c publishers
also have made the move to mobile computing as another outlet for their
content, as the American Chemical Society already provides mobile feeds
from magazines and journals and nature.com presents highlights from the
journal. Structure drawing also serves as a starting point for calculations
(formula, mass, physicochemical properties) and database look-up (Internet
for latest content, on device—currently space is not a problem). Symyx
ChemMobi and Mobile ChemSpider are both examples of providing access to
large online databases, while the latter presents a very simple interface and
limits the amount of data returned compared with the full Internet version,
thus maximizing the visibility of structures and data on the small screen (Figs.
28.2 and 28.3 ).
In the short term it is likely that a handful of key science applications will
dominate, although it is unclear at present what these will be. From the col-
laboration side so far there have been no real technologies developed of which
we are aware. The cloud-based management of publications (e.g., Papers and
Mendeley) is probably the most obvious benefi t of mobile computing today,
but there is a key gap here in the provision of tools for sharing data or fi nding
collaborators via mobile computing. In the midterm the popularity of tablet
computers will likely increase as a result of the in-vogue nature of the iPad,
and the upcoming availability of multiple other tablet devices, and this will
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