Shortly after iPad's launch in April 2010, many hospitals start launching iPad programs. Doctors find the touch screen intuitive and gives a hands-on experience for patients as they navigate through the images using iPad instead of sitting in front of a PC. It's also easy to carry on rounds, has a long battery life and is afforadable. Instead of finding a workstation to do what he/she needs to do, the doctor can gain access to get some work done on-the-go, which can be quite helpful when it comes needing to process time-sensitive patient cases.However, there are obstacles that need to be addressed before iPad moves forward fully in hospitals. There is lack of standards, the need for more safety regulations especially for storing patients' health record and personal information, and more marketing to both doctors and patients.
Do you think iPad will be widely adopted by doctors? What other challenges will it face?
I think if the hospitals start to streamline their business processes to take advantage of the need to digitize the data and allow for the doctors to be more productive and effective, it will succeed. A related issue is the availability of apps and many developers are already beginning to take advantage of this form factor...
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly a lot of potential uses for iPads or other tablets in healthcare settings. In a hospital, doctors and nurses are never really in one place for too long and there is a lot of waste in the additional motion of going back and forth to collect various elements from patients' files.
ReplyDeleteThe CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, John Halamka, actively blogs about technology challenges and opportunities that his organization faces. There was a recent guest post by an ER doctor who was piloting the use of the iPad. You can read about his experience here.
In the comments, other healthcare professionals have discussed further opportunities for their deployment. Although I realize that at the time this blog was posted (April), this was merely a pilot program, it was interesting to note that many of the systems were accessed via the web as opposed to custom apps.
I can definitely see the opportunities, but I think we may see the evolution of more specialized devices. I'm thinking of something that can interface (perhaps even wirelessly)with medical devices like MRI scanners, life-support systems, etc.
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