Carestream wins FDA approval for medical image viewing on tablets

Medical-imaging firm Carestream just received a clearance letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Vue Motion medical imaging app for iPads and other tablets.

With plenty of competition, like MIM Mobile, Carestream is banking on its device being "operating system agnostic," company officials say. The app isn't tied to any particular platform or vendor system, can connect to most existing or legacy PACS systems, DICOM archives or XDS repositories, and then pull images down to the tablet for viewing.

Another interesting note: The system doesn't require users to download the app in order to view the images, nor to store any images or software on the tablet, according to company statements. The system is web-based, and holds the images online or in the cloud, only using the tablet for viewing purposes.

Carestream admits the tablet version isn't as robust as its desktop software. Marketing manager Cristine Kao said it offers basic functionality, such as zoom in, zoom out, flip/rotate, and measurement capability, but it's real value is in accessibility to images on the go. "It doesn't have the sophisticated functionality [of the workstation], but it offers easy access to images," Kao told E-Health Insider in June, when Vue Motion initally was launched.

To learn more:
- read the Carestream press release
- check out the E-Health Insider story
- grab the DOTmed News brief