A study set out to determine whether an image captured by the camera on an iPhone was sufficient to assess patients in a hospital's emergency department. The treatment of nasal bone injuries was the focus of the study in a Dublin hospital. Nasal fractures are among the most common at emergency departments yet can be tough to diagnose, points out iMedicalApps. The result is that patients referred to ear-nose-throat specialists frequently do not turn up or do not require treatment which obviously is inefficient and hence the current study conducted by Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and originally published in Telemedicine and eHealth.

The study assessed 50 patients by taking two images of their injuries using the 3 MP camera on an iPhone. The images were then emailed to a senior member of the team who reviewed the pictures and determined what treatment was needed. Of the 50 patients, there was a 94 percent correlation between the perceived need for treatment based on the iPhone-generated images and the actual treatment in an outpatient clinic, says the study.