Japanese Surgeon Uses an iPad in Operation

Though there are tons of tablets being announced at Computex this week, the iPad is the one attracting all of the attention outside the show. With more than two million units sold, the device is showing up in some pretty strange places.

The iPad was just launched in Japan last week but one surgeon is already making use of the device in his operating room. Though it's unclear exactly how he's using the iPad, the surgeons in the video (seen here on Wired UK) pinch, zoom and drag their fingers across the screen, examining what appears to be the patient's insides or reference photos.

Watching how new gadgets and technologies affect medicine is interesting and we're eager to see if some of the cheaper, more open tablets scheduled to hit the market will enter hospitals on a more widespread scale. Digital hospital charts would be just one of the possibilites.

Wired points out that another Japanese doctor x-rayed his iPad back in April. Just because you're a doctor, doesn't mean you don't like x-raying random crap for fun.