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Hmmmm... let's see now.

Fire? Check... the iPad is Fireproof.

Floods? Check.. the iPad is Waterproof.

Yep... the perfect device!

The point is the server would be in a fireproof and waterproof location but could always be accessed through the network connections, unlike fireproof and waterproof safes which cannot quickly be accessed. So it matters little if th ipad is destroyed. Just replace and continue along as normal.
 
Hmmmm... let's see now.

Fire? Check... the iPad is Fireproof.

Floods? Check.. the iPad is Waterproof.

Yep... the perfect device!

Fire? Check...several remote redundant servers would protect against that. Locally stored paper records will be destroyed.

Floods? Check...several remote redundant servers would protect against that. Locally stored paper records will be destroyed.

Yep...remote redundant servers are the perfect solution to storing data entered by the iPad or any electronic devices.
 
Let's just hope when you are lying in your hospital bed, on the verge of death and they pick up the iPad it does not go wrong.

As go wrong they will eventually.

A piece of paper with writing on it costs nothing to replace and does not do wrong.

It's all nice and shiny and modern, but when things get serious I'd rather have something 100% reliable than some modern gadget.

As someone who works in medical field, that peice of paper is more likely to get lost or misplaced than a electronic version of it.

lets say im the doc, and i need to review some previous notes, i can run around and try to find your chart, or can use the ipad to retrive it.
 
As someone who works in medical field, that peice of paper is more likely to get lost or misplaced than a electronic version of it.

lets say im the doc, and i need to review some previous notes, i can run around and try to find your chart, or can use the ipad to retrive it.
Not to mention that most hospitals use electronic records at this point. The iPad isn't going to change anything.

The point is the server would be in a fireproof and waterproof location but could always be accessed through the network connections, unlike fireproof and waterproof safes which cannot quickly be accessed. So it matters little if th ipad is destroyed. Just replace and continue along as normal.
The servers are already pretty inaccessible. The iPad will only let the Doctors have quicker access to medical records that are already in electronic form.
 
As someone who works in medical field, that peice of paper is more likely to get lost or misplaced than a electronic version of it.

lets say im the doc, and i need to review some previous notes, i can run around and try to find your chart, or can use the ipad to retrive it.

I thought they were hooked onto the bottom of your hospital bed?
 
I thought they were hooked onto the bottom of your hospital bed?
Not in any hospital I've been in in the past 5 years (at least) in the US at least. That's not to say they don't still use paper. The hospital my wife works at still uses paper but they also have mobile electronic terminals for record keeping. The iPad wouldn't replace it though because they use them for med dispensing as well.
 
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I work at a hospital and we are currently testing ipads for daily use. We are using citrix receiver app to connect to virtual desktops.

we also have put to use the Citrix receiver app, so far the doc's are liking it for quick instant access to all of their applications they need.
 
Exactly. People are freaking out over this and it is really just an added tool that's not going to change the existing infrastructure.

And, again, for those who weren't paying attention, last year's stimulus Bill included nearly $20Billion for conversion to electronic medical records. The iPad didn't invent this.
 
I would imagine it's easier to press the wrong button on a screen than it is to write the wrong number on a piece of paper.

Error Checking in form fields.

I love tech, I'm just aware it's easy to replace things that are 100% reliable with tech that whilst looks clever, when it goes wrong, boy does it go wrong.
Lost paper. Pen doesn't write. Pencil broke. Bad handwriting.

Nothing's 100% reliable, and both have their place.

If you've ever worked in pharmacies, or as a nurse, the corrections from the staff to the doctor are rather common, and sometimes frightening.

I think I'd rather know the Doc had to select the med from drop downs, and know that the programming is running a second check for contradictions.

Which is fine if it's a letter of a photo or something, but not when it's your life. And who will monitor the devices in a few years time when they gradually start to fail?

The IT staff. I'm not sure why you assume they will simply be left to rot?

iPad's also are home/entertainment devices they are not built for serious work with redundant backup systems in place and able to be dropped etc etc.....

Not true. The backup is simply when docked. If dropped, you grab another, sync to that profile, and you're back up where you left off.

They're actually cheaper than many of the laptops you see in the hands of Docs at many offices, the storage is solid state rather than spinning laptop disk, and they're fast and convenient.
 
I've yet to see one in medical use here in the UK, but it could be just a matter of time. A potentially lucrative market for developers, too.

It's one of the few areas where tablet computers really excel. Actually, it's a niche where you could find a lot of tablet PCs YEARS before the iPad was even announced. Accordingly, this is not a NEW market. At all. A company that I've worked for back in 2001 to 2003 was already a big player there.
 
And, again, for those who weren't paying attention, last year's stimulus Bill included nearly $20Billion for conversion to electronic medical records. The iPad didn't invent this.
Obviously it depends on the hospital and what technology they're already using. I thought that was obvious.

It's one of the few areas where tablet computers really excel. Actually, it's a niche where you could find a lot of tablet PCs YEARS before the iPad was even announced. Accordingly, this is not a NEW market. At all. A company that I've worked for back in 2001 to 2003 was already a big player there.
I think you said it better than I did.
 
Let's just hope when you are lying in your hospital bed, on the verge of death and they pick up the iPad it does not go wrong.

As go wrong they will eventually.

A piece of paper with writing on it costs nothing to replace and does not do wrong.

It's all nice and shiny and modern, but when things get serious I'd rather have something 100% reliable than some modern gadget.

They are comparing them to being required to use a desktop - I'd rather trust the iPad than a desktop PC :) . At least when the iPad goes wrong it's a 20 second reboot to fix it...
 
Well, unsure really how many hundred years an iPad would last for :p

Just think a very large hospital, with say, what 200, 300 members of staff with iPads.
Nice hygienic clean HARD floors.
Just how many iPads per day do you think you would be replacing due to smashed glass from being dropped?


I take it you dont work in a modern hospital and the only health care experience you have is probably by wacthing an old hospital TV show.

Electronic medical record keeping is slowly but surely replacing the way we keep manage and share the information accross a wide arrange of platforms in the health care setting.

At work, a busy county hospital, the ipad helps me get the information at the bedside, that otherwise would interrupt my rounds and require me to go to the nurses station and log in a computer (if there is any available) and either print or worse, copy on hand writing in a piece of paper.

What about the Xrays, if paper would be better than electronic, well... I would have to interrupt my rounds, take the elevator to the 2nd floor, get to the radiology department wait for the all the people in line to go through a gigantic rotating machine that holds all the printed films, take a look at it, then get the number, go to a book that has the radiology readings on the prints, look for that number and copy in a piece of paper the specialist interpretation, then go back to the 10 floor and continue rounds... What about if is anything emergent, would you like your surgeon to be on the 2nd floor looking for a piece of trusty paper when you are in the 10th floor on an emergent situation????? What if you were admitted and had a surgery 3 months ago and you were too sick to tell me what it was and is a saturday morning were the paper files from previous hospital stays are not accessible?????

With the ipad, I click, log in, type a number and boom I have the record, the film, the reading by the radiologyst, the trends of previous labwork on previous hospital stays, the records from operations (that happen 15years ago) at the tip of my hads and at the bed side.

Now... What would you say about that? Real life example.
 
I think it was patently obvious that piggie didn't know what he/she was talking about.

When I was in hospital recently, whilst some things were done with tiny VERY RUGGED hand held devices, I don't think I was unable to see a large amount of documentation, on clipboards attached to the bottom of mine and other beds in the ward.

I think this is all a good idea, however I doubt the current iPad build as the most suitable device for the job.

Small screen monochrome items with big rubber casings seem to be the items used in the trade right now.

To be honest, a 7" device you can hold in one hand and enter data in using the other would seem a more suitable device.
 
When I was in hospital recently, whilst some things were done with tiny VERY RUGGED hand held devices, I don't think I was unable to see a large amount of documentation, on clipboards attached to the bottom of mine and other beds in the ward.

I think this is all a good idea, however I doubt the current iPad build as the most suitable device for the job.

Small screen monochrome items with big rubber casings seem to be the items used in the trade right now.

To be honest, a 7" device you can hold in one hand and enter data in using the other would seem a more suitable device.

Here in the U.S. patient charts are usually stored centrally at the nurse desks. With HIPPAA privacy laws it's probably not the best idea to leave them unattended. No doubt it's different elsewhere.
 
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