iPads infiltrate hospitals
- 29 July, 2010 13:57
- Comments 2
Victorian doctors and nurses could be equipped with iPads while undertaking their hospital rounds in future, if a trial of wireless technology is successful.
From January next year, 500 graduate doctors, nurses and advanced practice nurses would be given iPads to use when treating patients in hospital, Health Minister Daniel Andrews said.
The iPads would connect to safe wireless networks within the hospitals, without interrupting sensitive electronic equipment.
Mr Andrews said with the burgeoning use of and reliance on technology and technological aids in health, it made sense that health services would be influenced by access to new technology.
"The younger group of students and graduates of the health professions have grown up with technology all around them," he said.
"It is these young graduates that will be at the forefront of the introduction of a range of technology-based changes to the way patient information, diagnostics and treatments are performed and recorded."
Mr Andrews said the users would be able to tap into health information resources and web applications run by their hospitals.
The pilot would be assessed before it was expanded.
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Comments
Niels
The iPad is nothing new from a functional point of view, although the design is nice and the user interface is slightly different. For the rest it's quite similar to an Apple iBook or any other laptop. What can you do on an iPad what you couldn't already do on other mobile computers ;)
"The iPads would connect to safe wireless networks within the hospitals, without interrupting sensitive electronic equipment."
Of course, it gives the same kind of radiation, and the same kind of wireless communications as any other kind of mobile pc.
OpenIQ
Many in medical community has wanted the iPad for 20 years, I know my boss and I wanted one when I worked for the NHS in the early 90s.
The iPad is "big ipod touch" like a mainframe is a big server.
The form factor and gesture interface allow it to be used in different modes to a traditional laptop - standing, with one hand free to interact. A keyboard/mouse requires a work surface and two hands.
As a programmable computer it is software that drives it. With a little imagination most software applications can be retooled to the ipad.
Apple has also hinted at new user interface modes that make it easier for us to imagine how to interact with the form factor.
While the iPad as the ideal device for the medical community is debatable, the iPad heralds a new wave of thinking in the IT industry.
It's ubiquity and market buzz make adoption and training a moot point in many work place. Toddlers can use an iPad without training, not so for the PC which requires it's user's to adopt it's working practices and learn too much about how it works. Of course, we're all PC literate - so we take it for granted.
I rolling out PCs to medical secretaries in the 90s - replacing typewriters and green screens. I need copious amounts of tea and sympathy to stem the flood of tears. I don't see the iPad making highly-trained professionals cry.
It forces software designers to re-imagine the user experience to match the design excellence that Apple have baked into their GUI.
Whether it's an iPad, Cius, Android, etc - it doesn't matter, this form factor is here to stay. Let's use these new devices to deliver a better service to our constituents.
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