New Products

Anime touch-tablet computer preps kids for medical procedures

The anime cartoon production company TMS Entertainment is launching Smile-Touch, an anime-viewing, touch-screen tablet for use in pediatric care. The 1.6-kilogram portable device contains four 12-minute animated educational shorts to prepare young children for medical procedures such as X-rays, intravenous drips, inhalers, and blood samples.

The 12-inch touch screen can also show four 18-minute animated shorts to teach families on how to deal with fevers, infant diarrhea or vomiting, vaccinations, and accident prevention.

When the young patient needs to be distracted from potentially stressful examinations or treatments, the Smile-Touch holds about 11 hours of traditional animated entertainment such as Hello Kitty and Thomas & Friends.

TMS Entertainment is now taking orders for the Smile-Touch, and it will begin renting the device to medical institutions in Japan on September 23. Prototypes have already been put into trials in 23 hospital and clinics throughout Japan. 74.2% of health care providers surveyed in the trials said the devices were “effective” or “extremely effective,” and 90.8% said they were “good” or “very good.”

For more information, visit http://www.tms-e.com/english/

Posted August 19, 2010