DC Surgeon: “I Use the iPad Every Day in the Operating Room”

Some hospitals and health systems are working on customizing their clinical information systems so that doctors making their rounds can access patient data on iPads. But some physicians are taking things one step further by taking iPads into the operating room with them.

One of those pioneering surgeons is Felasfa M. Wodajo, MD, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at both the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s Inova Campus and Georgetown University Hospital.

“I use the iPad every day in the operating room,” says Wodajo, who specializes in musculoskeletal tumor surgery. The iPad is inserted into an X-ray cassette sterile bag. The top is cut off, folded back and clamped with a hemostat, allowing the iPad to be used in the sterile environment. Wodajo has found that the touch screen works well through the plastic bag even when he is wearing gloves...