Electronic Health Records on iPad: Physicians vs. Vendors
25 Jan 2011 | Apps | Ali Gorelova on Google+
With the growth of iPad’s popularity among physicians, there comes a question. Are vendors ready to develop sophisticated electronic health records? You’ll be surprised to hear that they are not.
Somehow the medical software industry does not hurry to react and create cool, new technologies that iPad users will easily adopt. Instead, they seem to wait till their competitors do everything themselves.
According to the poll conducted by Software Advice, about 35 percent of healthcare providers are very likely to buy a tablet computer in 2011. And because the iPad has become very popular and shares 87 percent of tablet PC market, healthcare providers are more likely to get the iPad which means that more and more people might be searching for iPad electronic health records (EHRs).
Nimble and Dr. Chrono on the iPad
There are only two vendors that were in time to develop EHR systems for the iPad. They are Nimble and Dr. Chrono, both released in 2010. These are the only 2 companies that developed native applications for the iPad. Aside those, not many vendors have launched apps for the popular Apple tablet to supplement EHR systems.
Nimble and Dr. Chrono are native applications for iPad that you can access from your tablet’s web browser. Other systems are not native iPad apps even though some of them, such as MacPractice, run on this tablet PC.
Slow Reaction
Other several hundreds electronic health records companies promise to develop applications for the iPad, but their apps are not ready yet.
Why is medical software industry so slow in adopting new popular technologies? We don’t know, but if you take a look at your physician’s office you will see an old system that probably comes from the 80s.
Yes, medical software vendors prefer to use DOS-based systems that are completely outdated.
And we are left to wait till newer companies become popular and develop cool-looking and interesting medical applications for the iPad.
Small iOS Developers Don’t Sleep
While big software companies don’t hurry up to create professional EHRs, a number of small iOS developers continue to release their medical apps for the tablet PCs.
The App Store counts over 10,000 medical applications released for the iPad by iOS developers. Some of these apps are pretty basic, while others are more advanced and allow tracking patient SOAP notes. Maybe some of them will find the resources to create sophisticated electronic health records for the iPad. Who knows?
Some of the lightweight EHRs include popular iMediNotes iPad application for physicians for tracking SOAP notes; Mediforms EMR app that is now free; SurgiChart released for surgeons who are now able to track patient case summaries; and Scutsheet with the help of which doctors can track lab test results along with patient notes.
You might also like to read:
Popular Healthcare Applications for iPad Users
iPad Fitness Applications: Exercise and Stay Beautiful
Top iPad Applications of January
Apple Announces the Best iPad Applications of 2010
