WebOS Gets Surprise Second Life in Healthcare

Hewlett-Packard's WebOS is making unexpected inroads in healthcare as medical researchers develop applications for the newly open-source platform. Andrew B. Holbrook, a Stanford University Department of Radiology research associate, developed a WebOS application that operates an MRI scanner and allows radiologists and other medical personnel to view images captured by the MRI machine on a TouchPad tablet.

Holbrook designed an app allowing HP's TouchPad to operate an MRI machine from inside the scanning room, then interface with a PC server located elsewhere. The computers traditionally used to control MRI scanners are cumbersome and costly because they need special modification to reduce metal parts, which react to the MRI machine's magnetic field and pose safety risks...