iPad and EMR - Where is the Value?

The iPad was released today in Canada in addition to the UK and 7 other countries. iPad fever is very much alive and many of the early purchasers of the iPad are developers and content companies who will commit their energy and resources to the development of applications. A significant number of those will be focused on healthcare.

But, where is the value for tools like an iPad when it comes to the EMR? EMRs that are purely browser-based should function on the iPad. Data input using the software keyboard may be more difficult than using a regular keyboard. In addition, the iPad is designed to function with finger movements and gestures. As a result, we are likely to see new and novel ways to capture and enter data.

I believe that the iPad is going to perform extremely well as a prescribing device. The iPad represents a whole new genre of computing devices. Other companies are not sitting idly by, so watch out for a wide range of new tablet sizes, features and functionalities from companies such as HP, Dell and Acer.

Medical evaluation websites are also developing as the demand for these applications grows. For example, see iMedicalApps.

What is your experience? Are you using an iPad for medical care?

Share your experiences and thoughts by clicking on the 'Comments' link below.

Comments

[twitter.com/robschertzer]

I have been fortunate to be using an iPad for the past few weeks, having bought one in the States to stay ahead of the curve. I agree that it will have some great medical uses though this is still in its early phases.

For starters, the EMR that I use, Optimed Software's Accuro, has a mobile version. This has been very good on an iPhone and makes great use of the increased screen real estate of the iPad. From what I understand, the company is also hard at work creating an actual iPad app aside from its excellent java based mobile app.

Optic imaging devices such as the Ocular Coherence Tomography units, will have iPad software. There is already an OCT Viewer available in the app store created by the good people at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre Dept of Ophthalmology. Not a surprise as the team there developed the OCT when they were in Boston a decade or more ago. I am sure that others or even they will develop similar viewers for the scanning laser ophthalmoscope imaging devices such as the Heidelberg Retinal Tomogram.

Although I have yet to install it, there is an Air app that allows extending your computer's screen onto the iPad. I just realized today that this means I can move the visual field or HRT viewer onto the iPad's virtualized screen and hand that to the patient even if there is no native viewer app yet. I will try this next week.

The other uses of the iPad for me have just been much better access to news sources as news apps are getting iPad optimized. A favorite is Instapaper Pro which allows me to save any web page into my Instapaper account to view later at my leisure via the Instapaper app. Between this and saving PDFs of journal articles, this is an excellent mobile educational tool for continuing professional development.

This is only the beginning of a very bright future for the iPad in medicine.

[Alan Brookstone for Eric Gombrich]

(The following comment was submitted by Eric Gombrich and is published on his behalf - Ed)

How timely!

While we have demonstrated the EMIS Patient Care System on the iPad, we too are interested in whether or not formally providing support for the device is warranted.

We will be allowing users to try to iPad at eHealth 2010 in Vancouver this week and provide feedback on what users think.

While there is a definite 'buzz' around the device, we still have questions as to its value for EMR users who are actually capturing structured, detailed, clinically-centric information as they interact with robust clinical and business decision support. Like the iPhone, the iPod, and other such devices, the UI seems to be exceptional for limited-data-entry type applications (Tweets, Text, etc.). But whether a GP can create a narrative record of a consultation, or edit a referral letter auto-generated by the EMR is something we will look to the market to indicate before we formally offer support for the iPad.

Personally, however, I love mine! But I don't use it as my 'work' device.

[twitter.com/robschertzer]

I've posted my comments with a few editorial changes as well as links to the apps that I refer to as an article on my blog. Value of the iPad in Medical Care

Glad to hear others like EMIS are working on iPad integration as well.

[Emmanuel M]

Got my iPad yesterday. This device is just awesome. It is the first device I've seen that can truly make the life of a doctor easier. Now, where are the apps that will turn it into a hospital intranet station?

I say we need a company that will repackage the iPad with appropriate apps and a washable skin and sell it as a medical device eligible as a business expense. I predict very good sales.

[Allan Horii]

I can see this as a useful tool for patient education. I installed the Blausen Human Atlas HD app, and it has many excellent short videos and illustrations.

As mentioned earlier, one limitation of this device will be data entry. No pen input, insufficient processing power to support reasonable voice recognition. Short text entry can be done on the on-screen keyboard, but anything more would have to be via docking station/keyboard.

I think this will be a nice companion piece, but won't replace my current tablet PC at the moment.

[Henry Olders]

Dragon Dictate gets around the problem of lack of processing power for voice recognition, by sending an audio clip to a server which does the voice recognition and sends back text. It will be interesting to see if this type of technology can be integrated into an EMR app, using perhaps a dedicated server and encryption to ensure confidentiality.

[Dr. David Vincent]

I purchased an ipad, hoping to use it to access our server while doing offsite visits, while ipad has vpn settings, apparently, as i was told yesterday, it will not work with our newly purchased PS suite progam through vpn access as Ipad does not support JAVA. It does work well though, with our current emr which is web based.