IBM develops "Google Earth for the body"

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Researchers at IBM have developed visualisation software that lets doctors see medical data on a 3D avatar, the firm announced today.

The Anatomic and Symbolic Mapper Engine (ASME) prototype software, created at the Zurich Research Lab, will let doctors click on a part of the avatar's body to trigger a search of medical records. ASME integrates different types of data - text records, lab results and images such as radiographs - and links it to an anatomical model, making it easier to cross-reference and navigate data.

"It's like Google Earth for the body," said IBM healthcare researcher Andre Elisseeff. "In hopes of speeding the move toward electronic healthcare records, we've tried to make information easily accessible for healthcare providers by combining medical data with visual representation, making it as simple as possible to interact with data that can improve patient care."

Rather than have to sift through paper records which aren't cross referenced, the ASME will let doctors see all available documents related to any given area of the body. Researchers are looking at adding speech to the system.

IBM said current health records don't fully make use of unstructured data, such as notes on paper or images, as they don't easily fit into database systems. ASME made use of the Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), which organises 300,000 medical terms, to bridge graphics and text documents.

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