Add the 'Short Description' to the 'items ordered' table within a sales order admin view

Question

Is it possible to add the 'Short Description' to the 'order view' within the 'Sales admin page'. Primarily in the 'items ordered' table so;

[Product][Item Status][Original Price][Price][Qty]...etc

to

[Short Description][Product][Item Status][Original Price][Price][Qty]...etc

This is the screen we'd like to edit. url/sales_order/view/order_id....

The Short Description exists in a simple product.

If we could also add this functionality to the order grid, that would be great.

We've taken a look at mySQL and the entry exists in 'catalog_product_flat_1' and can probably cobble a custom SELECT query to achieve this but we were wondering if there is a better way?

Thanks in advance.