HP’s webOS platform may find new life as an open source operating system for healthcare applications. Researchers at Stanford University have developed applications for the HP TouchPad tablet, a discontinued webOS device, to operate an interventional MRI scanner and view patient respiration data and images gathered from the device.
Andrew B. Holbrook, a research associate at Stanford’s Department of Radiology, developed an application for the TouchPad to control the MRI’s operations by interfacing with a PC server located outside the MRI room. Computers currently used to control MRI machines are cumbersome, requiring special construction to reduce their amount of metallic components which pose a safety risk.
The TouchPad has multiple features useful for healthcare applications: its mostly plastic construction is ideal for being used near the MRI’s magnetized chamber (any metal components found within the tablet, such as a vibration motor and speakers, can be removed while keeping the device functional), and webOS’s multitasking support allows users to quickly switch between multiple applications.
HP announced in early December that the webOS platform would become open source, allowing developers to take over primary development of the OS and customize it to their needs. Holbrook has already ported one of his apps, a respiratory monitoring device, to a webOS smartphone. He plans to continue to use the TouchPad in clinical trials at Standford this year, and develop more MRI applications for the webOS platform.
