Medical Apps
Is the Apple iPad™ Ready for Prime Time in the Doctor’s Office?
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On April 3rd, I was one of those first “early adopter” geeks who anxiously waited for my Apple® iPad™ to arrive at my doorstep. My reason for purchasing this latest Apple gadget was to utilize it as a media consumption device. I was not disappointed. Reading books, magazines, and headline news has never been more convenient. Listening to audio and watching video has also been a good experience. Sure, this all can be accomplished using a laptop or a netbook, but in my opinion, laptops and netbooks are more cumbersome to use than the iPad. Can this be accomplished with an iPhone® or iPod touch®? Certainly, but the larger 9.7” screen of the iPad makes the experience much more engaging. Four weeks later, I continue to find new uses for the iPad that transcends my original goal of simply reading, listening, and watching content. I’m now beginning to integrate it into my day-to-day business activities – primarily for managing email and as a note-taking tool in meetings. So far, there are 2 ways in which I enter notes: by using the onscreen keyboard, which requires a little practice, the Evernote app is perfect for creating, categorizing, and sharing notes; and Penultimate is a handwriting app that allows me to sketch and take notes. The Dragon Dictation app is a worthy mention as a tool to help expedite note-taking on the iPad.
Since the iPad announcement in January this year, technology pundits have been speculating on the iPad’s usefulness in vertical markets such as healthcare. At this time, there are only a few medical apps that have been developed specifically for the iPad. However, since the iPad can run the majority of existing iPhone apps, the iPad can immediately take advantage of the nearly 5000 medical, healthcare, and fitness apps that have already been developed for the iPhone or iPod touch. Brian Dolan from mobihealthnews.com comments that this application library of thousands of apps gives the iPad a “leg up” on other medical tablets.
There is a growing interest in how the use of the iPad could possibly help strengthen healthcare point of care. The potential to improve the provider/patient communication by using apps, such as the popular Blausen Human Atlas for iPhone, is what will excite a lot of healthcare professionals. Although the list of iPad specific medical apps is small right now, the list is starting to grow. Blausen has already announced that a version for the iPad is coming soon. In addition to the Blausen Human Atlas, here is a brief breakdown of 3 medical apps that are either currently being aggressively developed for the iPad or already have an iPad version:
Blausen Human Atlas: ($19.99) Aimed squarely at enhancing the healthcare provider/patient communication, Blausen Human Atlas gives medical professionals a tool for explaining medical concepts to patients through the use of 3D animations, still images, and comprehensive glossary of medical terms. iPad version coming soon.
Papers: ($14.99) Listed as one of the top 5 medical apps for the iPad by iMedicalApps.com. Papers is a useful tool for organizing and viewing your medical literature. What differentiates this app from other PDF readers is the built-in access to search engines to a variety of journal repositories including PubMed. Otherwise, if you simply need a good PDF reader, try the popular GoodReader. In addition to supporting PDF, GoodReader supports a wide variety of file formats including text, Word, Excel, images, and even audio and video. The price is right at only $0.99.
Citrix Receiver for iPad: (Free – but requires Citrix XenApp) This app provides a way for healthcare workers to securely access their electronic medical record system, and other patient data such as X-ray images, and other radiology imaging results over a wireless network. Because of this capability, a California hospital is already planning on ordering 100 iPads for their healthcare providers. The director of technical services of Kaweah Delta Health Care District comments that the $500 price of the iPad is very cost-effective compared to specialty touch screen tablets that may cost as much as $2000-$3000.
Will the iPad revolutionize the way healthcare professionals work and communicate with patients? Perhaps, but it’s too soon to say what the impact will truly be. The absence of Flash, no onboard camera, and no multi-tasking (until OS 4 is released in the fall) are a few legitimate reasons why the iPad may not be adopted quickly. However, as popular iPhone apps are updated to the iPad and as new innovative apps are released (such as Epic’s upcoming Electronic Health Record app Haiku or Mayo Clinic’s mRemedy platform which will be used to distribute a variety of useful apps for patients and healthcare professionals), the iPad may wind up becoming that indispensable tool that providers will carry from patient to patient.
Brad Hedrick, Partner
Primary Care Education
Published on May 10, 2010
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