McGraw-Hill Professional, a global provider of information resources for the scientific and medical communities, has partnered with Modality to bring Zollinger's Atlas of Surgical Operations to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch.

The general surgery atlas Zollinger's offers step-by-step details for abdominal, gastrointestinal, vascular and hepatopancreaticobiliary operations. This surgical reference application for the iPhone and iPod touch is designed to provide busy medical students, residents and surgeons with instant mobile access to the knowledge they need.

"Zollinger's for the iPhone and iPod touch is the initial launch of a larger licensing relationship between McGraw-Hill Professional and Modality," said Helen J. Parr, executive editor of Medical Online for McGraw-Hill Professional, New York. "We have licensed a series of our medical resources to Modality for iPhone and iPod touch development, including emergency medicine, USMLE test prep and pocket drug guides.

"McGraw-Hill Professional has a strong tradition of offering innovative online resources, including AccessSurgery, and our customers expect -- and ask -- us to embrace the latest technological advances," she said. "By partnering with Modality, we can meet our customers' demands by extending our leading presence in online surgical education to the iPhone and iPod touch."

Based on the Eighth Edition, Zollinger's iPhone applications allow consumers to access step-by-step instructions and superb line drawings for dozens of general surgery procedures.

Many procedures also include fully narrated animations adapted from McGraw-Hill's AccessSurgery, an online surgical education resource, which outline each step from Indications and Preoperative Preparation through Closure and Postoperative Care.

With the intuitive iPhone interface, consumers can navigate through detailed images with the flick of a finger, pinch to zoom and tap to read easy-to-follow instructions for each procedure.

The first two Zollinger's applications, covering upper gastrointestinal and colorectal procedures, are available for $34.99 through the Apple App Store.

"McGraw-Hill Professional will primarily market Zollinger's for the iPhone to our AccessSurgery community," Ms. Parr said. "With its global presence among surgical residency programs and its popular customizable curriculum, AccessSurgery directly reaches the core target market of general surgeons."

Modality will also market and promote the application.
The products are compatible with both the iPhone and the iPod Touch and do not require a network connection.

The applications will be periodically updated with new surgical animations. Three additional Zollinger's applications are scheduled for release later in 2008.

McGraw-Hill's AccessSurgery is an integrated online resource that provides medical students, surgical residents and practicing surgeons with quick answers to surgical inquiries from trusted sources.

Modality's patent-pending process transforms and distributes premium content for handheld devices, allowing consumers mobile access to content relevant to their education, professional training and lifestyles.

Modality is actively developing partnerships with publishers and other content owners for future iPhone application titles.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first surgical application of its kind for the iPhone and iPod touch," Ms. Parr said. "Not only does the application include step-by-step procedural images and text from the leading surgical atlas, but it also uniquely includes narrated and chapterized animations originally developed for AccessSurgery."