The Apple iPhone rocked the world. It created a niche market for medical software development and more importantly it was cool to have it. Every doctor wanted one and right now it is estimated that 1 out of 20 physicians carries an iPhone.
Having helped over a hundred physician practice to implement EHR I have seen the benefits of tablet computing for documenting patient encounters in the EMR. I believe that iPad computing will become a big part of the EMR/EHR toolkit in the years to come. I recently evaluated the OfficeEMR iPhone edition on the iPad and was extremely impressed with how it functioned. (OfficeEMR is a CCHIT solution distributed by WorkSmart MD) Ease of use, scalability, and Simple!
I’ve evaluated a number of applications (apps) written as EMR iPhone interfaces. Some are great and some… not so great. One thing you can count on is those apps will be rewritten for the iPad to take advantage of the additional screen space.
I predict that a significant number of new apps will be released in the coming year by companies in the EMR space. While the iPad is just a computer it is a computer with completely new user interface. I think the iPad has the potential to rock health care like the iPhone did for the whole world. Time will surely tell!
