Dr. Dobb's | They're Doing What with iTunes?

They're Doing What with iTunes?

Radiologists do the darnedst things

July 21, 2008
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/theyre-doing-what-with-itunes/209102252

This isn't what Steve had in mind. Radiologists at at Renji Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai are using iTunes to save, sort, and search PDF files.

"Most published medical papers are available on the internet in a PDF format now," said Li Jun Qian, MD. "For radiologists, these electronic papers provide richer information (e.g. various cases, reviews and abundant, valuable images) than conventional textbooks and can be easily found and downloaded for further reading via online databases. However, managing PDF files is troublesome and it is difficult to find software designed for organizing them," said Dr. Qian.

Generally speaking, most people sort PDF files in folders on their PC by topic. However, using this approach does not solve the issue of how to file multi-subject articles, said Dr. Qian. Researchers have found that iTunes can address this issue due to its powerful search and sort functions, its ability to remember a user's favorite articles and its capability to support customized shortcuts for different topics and/or categories.

"One day I just happened to drag and drop a PDF into iTunes and was surprised to find that it was supported by iTunes. This means that you can search, describe, and rate PDFs just like you do the music files," said Dr. Qian. "We no longer need to keep PDF files in redundant folders."