I found this great article which highlights a number of the reasons I’ve been saying that the iPad needs its own native EMR interface and not just some Virtual Desktop solution to access your EMR.

First it offers two reasons why the Virtual Desktop solution is a good option:
-Security
-Cost

The first benefit of security is a good once since as long as your virtual desktop and access to your virtual desktop are secured, then you don’t have to worry about healthcare related data on the iPad. The second benefit is mostly a benefit to the EMR software vendor. Sure, they could make the argument that the price to develop a native iPad app is passed on to the end user. However, most doctors won’t feel that cost. In most cases it just means that other features on the EMR development roadmap will just get pushed back. Although, even this can be a bad strategy if your developers are good at developing EMR software on your current platform, but aren’t familiar with developing a native iPad app. Then, it’s worth spending some money on an iOS developer who knows which features of the iPad they can really leverage.

Now on to the reasons the article suggests that you develop a native iPad app and not just do the virtual desktop solution:
-Doesn’t Make Use of Native iPad Functionality
-Requires Constant Connectivity
-Virtualized Apps are Not Optimized for the iPad

The first and third in the list are very much related and are the biggest reasons why a native iPad EMR app makes so much sense if you’re going to do something on the iPad. The second item actually doesn’t apply very well to an iPad EMR app which even when created as a native app will likely need to have internet connectivity to have any value. An EMR iPad app could be made that didn’t need connectivity, but I have yet to see one that’s done that.

The holiday season is officially upon us, or so said both of my daughters after they saw Santa Claus conclude the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone – not unnoticed by the average American consumer if recently released retail figures are any indication. The economy seems on the verge of a slight upswing, if our holiday spending this early in the season is any indication.

How does healthcare fit into all this? Two holiday headlines recently caught my eye. The first, “Apple Breaks Black Friday Record,” notes that iPad sales “surged 68%” that particular day, breaking the company’s own purported predictions that it would achieve Black Friday sales four times higher than normal. The second, “Mobile Healthcare and Medical App Downloads to Reach 44 Million Next Year, Rising to 142 Million in 2016,” makes the prediction that “[a]cceptance of new healthcare practices like remote patient monitoring will come directly from consumers becoming engaged in mHealth through the smartphone.”

Forty-four million medical app downloads next year might not be such a high number to reach when you take Apple’s record one-day iPad sales into consideration. Physicians and healthcare consumers alike seem to not only be jumping onto the tablet bandwagon, but gearing up to race it to the finish line as well.

So now that we’ve established the healthcare connection, what’s all this got to do with EMRs? Will these predictions and likely outcomes coincide with an upswing in mobile EMR app development? As of yesterday, 60 apps popped up when I searched for “EMR” apps for the iPad in the iTunes store. Forty-seven results came up for “EHR,” many of them the same. I’ll be interested to see what this number is six months and then a year from now.

As this blog has well documented for some time now, healthcare’s love affair with the iPad was a slow burn at first, but has now become fast and furious. I can only imagine that EMR developers will take their relationships with the iPad to the next level in record time just to meet customer demand. While I won’t necessarily be waiting with baited breath for Practice Fusion’s launch next year of its iPad app, I will definitely check it out while at HIMSS, where I assume they’ll give it a Vegas-style launch.

I’d love to hear from physicians as to how inundated the market is likely to become with these types of technologies. And aside from EMR/EHR apps, will mobile health downloads really take off as predicted? Share your own predictions in the comments below.

Full Disclosure: Practice Fusion is an advertiser on this site, but they didn’t pay Jennifer to mention their iPad app. In fact, I’m not even sure if Jennifer knows they’re an advertiser.

I like I’m sure many of you have been a bit overwhelmed by the amazing outpouring of love that’s happened after the passing of Steve Jobs. It was weird for me, because I knew that Steve Jobs health wasn’t good but I was still a bit shocked to see on Twitter that he’d passed away. Certainly a major loss for his family, but the effect will be felt well beyond them.

I’ve been touched by a number of posts throughout the healthcare IT and EMR blogosphere. Here’s a roundup of a few of the Steve Jobs posts I found.

Jim Tate did a post that considers what if Steve Jobs had developed an EHR. Here’s one section:

For the past 5 years I’ve kept hoping that Apple would develop an EHR. One that when someone first used it they would say: “Yes, this is how it should be”. Whatever he developed and released to the world didn’t even need an owner’s manual. It just worked in a very human way.

I know I’ve written about the possible Apple EHR as well and what it might look like. As I read Jim’s post I couldn’t help but wonder if the reason Steve Jobs didn’t take on a project like an EHR was because our regulations and reimbursement don’t work in a human way.

Dr. Liu on Kevin MD wrote a post about Steve Jobs as a physician mentor. I love the idea that Steve Jobs was his mentor even though they never met. He offered this heartfelt thought:

I as a doctor I’m incredibly sorry that medicine has not yet evolved to the point that a cure exists for the rare type of cancer Jobs. I’m sorry that he is so ill at an incredibly young age, in his mid 50s, when many people begin to contribute even more to society with all of the knowledge and experience they’ve acquired. The future might be a little less bright without Jobs leading his team at Apple on creating products and experiences none of us truly knew existed until he showed them to us.

It is such a shame that he died so young. In fact, I’d say that might be the hardest part of it all.

The self professed Mac Fan boy, John Moore from Chilmark research, paid a tribute as well. He highlights some of the key things that Steve Jobs did with Apple products:
-Design aesthetics combined with functionality rule
-Supporting a renegade
-Systems rather than parts
-Supporting innovation

Yep, Steve Jobs will be missed in healthcare and well beyond.

At least that’s the case that was made in this blog post on the Software Advice website. The post is a few months old which is centuries in the tech world, but I have to disagree with them on their take that EMR vendors are slow to move their products to the iPad platform. In fact, I mentioned in their comments that I think every single EMR vendor has an iPad strategy.

They do get it right that doctors are adopting the iPad at a really dramatic pace. Here’s my reasons why it’s been so popular:
1. Battery life that lasts a full shift
2. 3G and Wireless Connectivity
3. Intuitive interface
4. $500 price point

We’re still waiting on some enterprise features that it seems like the Blackberry Playbook is trying to implement for healthcare. However, I’m pretty sure they’ll get there in time or someone will create an app that will create those features anyway.

Back to the iPad, the article only states 2 companies that have an iPad EMR offering. There are many more than that. I’ve seen some from Practice Fusion, GE, and VitalHealth to just name a few.

What I haven’t yet seen is how well doctors like the use of their EMR iPad interface. Is it really that usable for a doctor doing his rounds? Does it work well for clinical documentation? Is it a nice compliment to a desktop environment?

Sadly, I still can’t give my first hand account of using an EMR on an iPad. I got my refund from HIMSS since despite all the free iPad giveaways I came home without one. Oh well, the iPad 2 is out now and it would have been a shame to only won a first generation iPad. I’m told by Christmas there may even be an iPad 3, but I digress.

What might even be more interesting than EMR use on an iPad is the other creative ways that people are using iPads in healthcare. For example, I’ve heard of people using an iPad as a check in device for their clinics. There’s something cool about handing over an iPad instead of a clipboard for your patients to fill out their paperwork. I’m sure some patients would hate it, but I for one would be much happier feeling out the stack of paperwork electronically.

The iPad has been a regular topic on EMR and EHR since last year when we first wrote about the Apple iPad EMR. While it’s normal for there to be a lot of hype around the announcement of a device like an iPad, I must admit that the hype around the device hasn’t really slowed down any.

If you’re a blogger and want your article read, all you need to do is mention your iPad and people will click through to read about it. I’m not immune to it either. Just take a look at the list of giveaways at HIMSS. If you’re not giving away an iPad, then you probably don’t belong there.

One healthcare IT vendor on a HIMSS LinkedIn thread recently said they were giving away an iPod at HIMSS. Turns out that was mistake. Of course, he meant to say they were giving away…wait for it…an iPad. Think how lucky Apple is that hundreds of iPads will be given out at the largest Healthcare IT conference on the planet (30,000 people attending). Plus, Apple didn’t even have to pay for the promotion.

With all these free iPads hitting the healthcare IT world, I wonder how many more iPads will be purchased. Now some might wait to see what the second generation iPad will look like (I wonder if some creative vendor will giveaway the second generation iPad instead of the first generation), but no doubt there’s some mythical quality to the iPad. You see someone else using it and want one. At least I do. I’m not even sure why I want one, but I do. It’s not because everyone else has one cause I like to buck trends. However, there’s just something really nice about the form factor of the iPad tied with all its apps.

The real question is how well will the iPad do in an enterprise situation. I’ve started to see stories come out talking about the challenges of IT staff in supporting and deploying large numbers of iPads in their organizations. One such story had the CEO promise everyone iPads for Christmas. Then, the CIO had the amazing challenge to distribute and support thousands of iPads in their organization. You can’t take back a Christmas gift.

Since this is an EMR and EHR site, let’s just say that from my point of view, the EMR and EHR apps for the iPad still have a ways to go. I’ll be sure to do an informal poll of all the EMR companies I talk with at HIMSS about their “iPad EMR strategy.” I’m certain that they all have one. I’ll be interested to know EMR companies various approaches.

Of course, if you don’t like to run with the popular kids, maybe you should check out the Blackberry Playbook in Healthcare. I’ve heard it’s a great device and maybe they’ll actually care about the enterprise. I’m pretty sure the iPad is positioned that they won’t care all that much about the enterprise.

If you are going to HIMSS and want to learn about my giveaway. Tomorrow, I’ll post the details on EMR and HIPAA about how to win a 42″ HDTV. That’s over 4 times as big as the iPad’s little screen.

You know how I love to keep track of all the iPad EMR that are announced or marketed. Seems like the latest trend is to give the doctor a free iPad for selecting an iPad EMR. Not a bad strategy. Now if I could just get one of them to provide me a free iPad for reviewing their EMR *wink* *wink* but I digress.

I first read about this EMR that is available on the iPad on the Essinova site. This iPad EMR is being offered by Dr Chrono. Yes, another EMR vendor I’d never heard of before I saw this. Although, there site has them being on CNBC, Fox Business and The Wall Street Journal.

Dr Chrono’s approach is to provide a free iPad EMR app, but they take over the billing for you. Sounds a bit like Athena to me. They also say that they’re the only SureScripts certified ePrescribing app for the iPad. Maybe this was true when the video was made. I know that now there are others.

I guess maybe the next question is whether there’s an EMR vendor that won’t have something available on the iPad in the next 6 months.

i Medical Apps recently posted an article about Apple’s iPad falling short of transforming hospital Medical Care, but says it may have potential with EMR. We’ve discussed the iPad and EMR quite a few times on this blog with interesting responses.

The above article offers 3 reasons why their skeptical that the iPad will transform the way EMR software is done:
1) For a healthcare provider’s day-to-day use, the iPad doesn’t do anything better than an iPhone or a laptop/desktop.
2) Big hurdles face development of peripherals for more advanced healthcare functions
3) Safety

I guess for me the most important thing I’ve seen was a conversation I recently had with a doctor. This doctor is a HUGE Apple fan boy and always has the latest Apple gadget (like the iPad). I asked him now that he’s had the iPad for a while, what he thought about it.

He responded, “It’s a great toy.”

I think that basically summed it up for me. It is a great tool for doing a lot of things, but EMR is not likely one of them. I’ll still go back to my initial projection that the methods of input that the iPad are providing might be the basis for the future of data input. However, the iPad device itself isn’t what’s going to see the widespread adoption in healthcare IT and EMR.

It does make a great giveaway at conferences though.

I find this completely fascinating. Yes, the Apple Store is demoing various medical applications like EMR on the iPad. Here’s an excerpt from blogger Iltifat Husain walking into an Apple Store:

When I recently walked into my local Apple store to buy an iPad accessory, I saw a group of about 20 people huddled around a large LCD screen while an Apple employee was giving a workshop.

When I saw the LCD screen full of medical applications, I was shocked. This wasn’t your run of the mill “how to use your iPhone” workshop.

The people gathered for the workshop consisted of healthcare professionals in medicine, dentistry, and other fields. About a third of the group consisted of physicians.

The workshop was focused on how the iPhone and iPad can be useful for their practices and as reference tools for day to day work.

The workshop was led by an Apple employee who went through a slideshow presentation of useful medical applications, such as Epocrates, iMurmur, Airstrips OB, and many of the other useful applications we’ve featured on iMedicalApps before.
…
Along with the presentation given by the Apple employee, a MacPractice representative was on hand to demonstrate their electronic health record and how it worked from the desktop to the iPhone and to the iPad.

Pretty interesting to see Apple committing that type of resource to marketing the clinical applications.

I first wrote about the possibility of an iPad EMR back in February when the iPad was first announced. At the time my speculation was that we wouldn’t see an iPad EMR developed, but that the iPad would have a significant impact on the EMR input methods.

Well, I guess I was wrong on one account. MangoMed has developed what their website calls an “iPad based EMR EHR.” I wonder if this was just a quick shift from being an EMR like all the rest and the company quickly just decided to capitalize on the PR that an iPad EMR would have. They’ll be interesting to watch. If I had an iPad I’d try out their EMR and give you a full recap. MangoMED EMR, want to buy me an iPad and I’ll review your EMR and post it on my site as payment?

I must admit that it’s not a bad initial move. I’m actually quite surprised how many people are searching for iPad EHR or iPad EMR or some variation on those terms. The other company that I think is likely to benefit from the iPad is the Epocrates EHR that was announced at HIMSS. Epocrates has been all about this type of form factor for a while and so they should definitely capitalize on that skill.

With all of this said, I still don’t see the iPad being a revolutionary device in the EMR world. Outside of my initial assertion that it will change EMR input methods that will then be implemented by other companies as well.

The hype over the new Apple iPad has been really interesting to watch. You can’t even buy one and everyone under the sun is speculating on how well the Apple iPad will do. Everything from it changing the netbook space to Grandma’s first computer being an iPad to the iPad as a gaming machine.

I’m certain that the iPad is going to be a huge gaming machine. The question I have is will the iPad be a game changer in the EMR world.

For those of you not living in the tech bubble that I live in, the iPad is most simply described as an iPhone with a much larger screen. Now I’m sure the purist out there might point out some other differences, but that’s kind of beside the point. The touch input method is the same as the iPhone and it also uses the cell towers to connect to the internet. It also runs the iPhone OS including all of the apps that have been created for the iPhone.

Back to the original question, will the iPad be a game changer for EMR. My prediction is that we really won’t see many iPad’s in healthcare much at all. Sure, there will be one here or there, but it won’t be widespread and we won’t see an “iPad EMR” that was designed to leverage the interface and technology of the iPad.

So, why would I even bring it up? Well, I don’t see the iPad EMR coming to fruition I do see the input technology that’s in the iPad and that will come out of the iPad having an effect on future input interfaces. Apple’s making a huge bet on touch interfaces with the iPad. the adpoption of touch interfaces and the technology that comes out of it is likely to have a huge influence on future EMR interfaces.

One of the biggest complaints doctors have about the various EMR systems is the challenge of inputting the data. Don’t be surprised if the future EMR input methods are heavily influenced by the introduction of the iPad and the technologies that develop around it.