IBM researchers have developed new three-dimensional visualization software that will allow physicians to view electronic health records on an animated representation of the human body, eHealth Europe reports.
Doctors can use the software's Anatomic and Symbolic Mapper Engine, developed by IBM's Zurich Research Lab, to click on an area of the illustrated body and retrieve relevant medical records, such as text entries, lab results and medical images.
"It's like Google Earth for the body," Andre Elisseeff, an IBM researcher, said, adding, "In hopes of speeding the move toward [EHRs], we've tried to make information easily accessible for health care providers by combining medical data with visual representation."
Elisseeff said the idea for the software came from work with Acure, a Danish company that IBM recently acquired. "We wanted to create a system that would help staff identify risks quicker, based on a patient's past history," he said.
The software is in a prototype phase and is built off of IBM Denmark's EHR software. It uses a standard image for the body parts, and researchers will explore adding speech technology into the avatar, IBM said.
The Anatomic and Symbolic Mapper Engine also will be capable of using SNOMED, the method of coding that will be used in EHRs worldwide to connect graphic concepts and text documents. A full version of the software is scheduled for release in September 2008, pending the results of initial pilot tests (eHealth Europe, 9/27).