Apple's iPhone has established quite a following among healthcare professionals, but will the company's iPad tablet computer take advantage of that market penetration?
Technology watchers believe that with the iPhone forming an important market wedge, the months-old iPad device has the potential to make inroads into healthcare. Gregg Malkary, managing director of the Spyglass Consulting Group, found iPhones the top mobile device among physicians he interviewed, with 44 percent using an iPhone.
"A lot of them see this as an evolutionary step beyond the iPhone," Malkary said. "There's more screen real estate, easier to use hardware, and a faster processor."
The iPad, however, faces some obstacles in the path of healthcare acceptance. Battery life could be one of those. Although the iPad boasts battery longevity beyond pervious Apple devices, it may end up pushing its limits in healthcare. "I do believe the iPad faces some challenges in the hospital with nurses"the reason is battery life," said Kent Dicks, chief executive offcier at MedApps, which makes mobile health monitoring systems. He noted that a nurse's typical shift is 12 hours.
Apple rates the iPad at 10 hours of battery life, although some reviewers have reported results in the 12-hour range.
Malkary said since the batteries aren't hot swappable, a clinician may need a second iPad to get through a shift. He also pointed to price as a consideration. The $500 price tag and additional fees for voice and data services might give some buyers pause, he said. That could be a particularly limiting factor in public health settings, which have little money to spend on technology.
And then there's the history of other tablets in the medical market. "We've been here," noted Malkary, referring to Intel's mobile clinical assistant initiative and Motion Computing's C5 tablet. "It never quite took off before."
Dicks, however, said he believes iPad will yet find a home in healthcare, but must target the right segment. "The best place for the iPad is in the doctors office and hospital," he said. "I would love to be handed an iPad when I get to the doctors office, and have them, say: "˜here is your record, has anything changed? instead of getting that 3 page form every 6 months to fill out all over again, and again, and again."
Malkary cited the medical academic community as another potential iPad market. Such users could browse textbooks or medical journal articles on the device.
The iPad, he added, could also emerge as a resident education tool, noting that the device could run multimedia presentations of medical procedures. The iPad could also serve as an access device for electronic medical records. On that front, electronic health record system vendors such as NextGen Healthcare are exploring iPad as a potential platform. On the ambulatory side, NextGen's device-independent architecture aims to support Blackberry, iPhone and iPad as well as other mobile devices, a NextGen spokeswoman said.
The goal of this mobile device strategy, she said, "is to enable providers to have more direct access to patient records and other resources they need to deliver timely care."
The company's NextGen Clinical inpatient suite already supports smartphone access via iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, Google or Windows phones, she said. That access is provided through a browser that works with inpatient applications including CPOE and clinical documentation.
The iPad's expansion in healthcare, however, will depend on the availability of applications and content: textbooks, journal articles, reference works and the like. "Are journals and text books going to jump in and embrace the iPad and redesign content to take advantage of the platform?" Malkary asked. "We don't know yet."
