Recently, torrential rains besieged Southern California, leading to deadly mud slides and floods. Countless roads and highways were closed, leaving many trapped and/or stranded. I was fortunate enough to have avoided harm, but I was stuck on the northern side of Highway 101, unable to return to Los Angeles (where we publish Medical Imaging ) for several days until the freeway reopened.

During my stay in Carpenteria, Calif, only one thing saved me: my mobile phone. Complete with Internet access, voice memo recording, text messaging, camera, and all the usual bells and whistles, my little Samsung was essential in connecting me to my everyday life. I was able to check email, view maps of alternate routes, and, of course, make telephone calls.

My story isn't anything out of the ordinary, as a great percentage of the population lives via Blackberry devices and other miniature mobile computers. However, being surrounded by such horrific destruction and still having a sense of normalcy through a tiny phone was eye-opening. Technology has become so integrated into our daily lives that we couldn't possibly turn back now. In fact, we're forging ahead at incredible speed, developing new technologies every day and finding new ways to use them.

Although horrific and deadly, the mud slides and floods in Southern California were minuscule in comparison to the devastation caused by the December 26, 2004, tsunami in Southeast Asia. Medical Imaging applauds the efforts of two companies in the imaging space that are reaching out to help survivors. Eastman Kodak Co (Rochester, NY) donated approximately $1.5 million in cash, services, and materials, including imaging solutions and services to support the identification of those persons lost and missing from the disaster. Cedara Software Corp (Toronto) made a $100,000 donation in support of the Asian Tsunami Relief to Save the Children Canada, an organization that provides both emergency relief and long-term development assistance. Cedara CEO Abe Schwartz noted, "Children are particularly vulnerable, especially in times of dire crisis, which is why Cedara chose to make its donation to Save the Children Canada."

An interesting example of just that hails from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where Osman Ratib, MD, PhD, has turned his iPod into a storage device for medical images. Ratib, who is professor and vice chairman of radiologic services at UCLA, worked with Antoine Rosset, MD, a radiologist in Geneva, to develop OsiriX. This Macintosh-based software displays, manipulates, and transfers medical image data.

Essentially, Ratib uses his iPod as a temporary hard drive to transfer images and data, uploading them to the device and then downloading them to a Macintosh computer. "Radiologists deal with a very large amount of medical imaging data," Ratib told the December 2004 issue of RSNA News . "I never have enough space on my disk; no matter how big my disk is, I always need more space. One day, I realized I have an iPod that has 40 gigabytes of storage on it. It's twice as big as the disk on my laptop, and I'm using only 10 percent of it for my music. So why don't I use it as a hard disk for storing medical images?"

OsiriX is compatible with not only the iPod but also iChat and AOL Instant Messenger, allowing users to benefit from video-conferencing capabilities so that two radiologists a world apart from one another can chat online about an image that they're both seeing. The software is free and available for download at homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix . Distributed through Open Source Licensing, OsiriX was downloaded by more than 1,000 users within its first month of availability. Ratib believes the number of actual users is as many as five times that amount.

What inventive uses of technology have you seen recently? I'd love to hear your stories, so please drop me an email. Perhaps I'll even read it via my mobile phone.

Andi Lucas
Editor