BREAKING: Apple’s Tablet Is For The Healthcare Industry

by Jason Wilk on January 9, 2010


DiggThis
Picture 3

  • I know, I’m sick of the Apple tablet rumor mill as well, but I couldn’t let this story slide by. It even brought me back to blog for a day, breaking my 3 month blog hiatus while I work on my Y Combinator startup.
  • While the whole tech news world sits around waiting to see what the official deal with the Apple tablet is and if anyone is going to buy this thing, Apple has been quietly ensuring the instant success of their tablet device. How? Apple has been going around targeting their first major paying customer for the device, which is not the average consumer, but the Healthcare industry (sorry fan bois, you’re not first priority here). This is a move widely overlooked by the media, since Apple has generally tried to own the consumer arena, and besides the film industry, hasn’t dominated enterprise. Well, now that they own the music, mobile, laptop and every teenager market, the medical industry is the next up to take over. [What's my intel? My Dad plays golf with Cedas-Sanai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks].
  • Let’s talk this out. First, this makes perfect sense. The iPhone has already served as a great platform for medical applications. Companies like LifeScan have an app for users with Diabetes. Epocrates is another medical app which Picture 2 let’s doctors view continually updated clinical data, check for drug-drug interaction, identify pills by physical characteristics and perform medical calculations such as BMI and GRF (pictured*). Then we have iChart, a “personal medical assistant,” which stores everything from patient data to charts and lists of medications in a streamlined, organized fashion (oh, and it regularly updates with new medical data pulled from healthcare networks).  The problem with the iPhone is that it is too small to handle all of this data, not from a processor standpoint but just overall screen size. The tablet can pave a whole new way for medical applications and the way we interact with our doctors. You can certainly bet the iPhone will interact very well with the tablet, so syncing information back and forth with your doctor via both devices should be a breeze.
  • Second, there is already a huge market here with real competitors (not just a Microsoft Courier). In 2007, a company called Motion Computing Inc. launched a product called C5, a tablet computer for doctors that claimed to eliminate the clipboard, scanner and cart-mounted computer on wheels often used in hospitals today. The product is widely used today, but it’s dated, weighs over 3 pounds and sells for $2199. Even at the highest speculated price, Apple’s tablet will cost only $1000.
  • obama-apple-white-1920x1200(2)Third, Obama. The President is on Apple’s side here with this one. He has made electronic record-keeping a key feature of his health-care reform effort (hint hint). Electronic records available through Apple’s tablet will save time, mistakes and lives.
  • Come on. Did you really think Steve Jobs was going to make a grand comeback just so you could play Doodle Jump on a 10 inch screen? Also, Joe Wilcox of Beta News, yes the world IS ready for a tablet.

[Post to Twitter] 

Tagged as: Apple, doctor, health care, healthcare, industry, medical device, tablet

  • Yes, I think so.
  • Thanks for a nice share you have given to us with such an large collection of information. Great work you have done by sharing them to all. simply superb.
  • there's evidence that Apple may be using a tablet as a way to break out of the consumer box, which would reopen the largest markets for it.
  • frankrezny
    To date, the medical market, and specifically, the bedside medical market is the only area with significant penetration of tablet computers. To lump in UPS and other freight carriers use of a signature capture device as a tablet is ludicrous.
    As for medical software being "mostly for Windows", increasingly the interface to an EMR is through a browser.
    In Ontario, the single biggest vendor, Practice Solutions Software, with 46% of the market for fully integrated medical practice management and medical records is "platform agnostic" with identical functionality on both Mac OS and Windows.
  • Despite the title and imprecise sources, this makes sense. You could also see it catching on quickly in the construction, law enforcement, legal, and IT industries.

    It would be interesting to see if healthcare can lead the charge with this, and how/when the device would be available to the public.
  • lacker
    Nah... I'm still betting Doodle Jump on a 10 inch screen. No way Apple launches something that's big business rather than consumer focused.
  • scott
    It seems that this blogger just made all of this up on his own, has nothing to back it up, but speaks as if it's true, and feels that his opinion is worth a "BREAKING" in the title. I guess you've gotta get page views some how.
  • Anthony
    The industry needs an upgrade. I have been in the ICU unit at a local hospital and just notice the amount of paperwork and lack of information sharing that exists in hospitals. In fact, people are still writing down everything, medications, the amounts, etc. I am flawed by the lack of technology in hospitals. Upgrade is needed - tablet or otherwise.
  • Makes sense, especially considering what Jobs has gone through over the last few years with his pancreatic cancer and liver transplant.
  • lemieuxster
    This makes sense until you consider the fact that, unless I am very mistaken, most medical record software (ERM) is developed for Windows. Sure, you could also bundle in VMWare or BootCamp, but if it is just the form factor you are after, wait a while and others will catch up. Changing from one medical software suite to another is no easy task. The risk of changing OS's will definitely play against Apple in this case. Cool Idea, though.
  • tvdb
    Obviously, the tablet would not run standard EMR software but give access to webservices provided by these systems, pulling data from the central databases and presenting it in a more convenient layout.
  • makes total sense. might be one of the better industry applications.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post: Be The Change

Next post: VIDEO: Apple’s New Patent Allows For Mousing With Your Head