A Malaysian entrepreneur believes that today’s digital technologies could soon replace the traditional (some would say gruesome) post-mortem examinations of human bodies.
According to a recent report from the Reuters News Service, Matt Chandran expects to open the first of 18 planned digital autopsy facilities in Great Britain beginning this October. The digital autopsy procedure would utilize Chandran’s proprietary iGene 3D imaging software, and would replace the scalpel with a digital scanner and the autopsy bed with a touchscreen surface.
Not only is the digital autopsy cleaner and less gruesome, but the results of the digital examination can be reviewed after the procedure by other experts without having to reopen the body.
At one point in the 1950s, pathologists in the U.S. and Europe performed autopsies on more than 60% of those who died. The percentage of autopsies has declined to about 20% of all deaths, but there are still an estimated 7 million autopsies performed each year in Great Britain alone, according to the Reuters report.
