iPad Hesitation — Me?!

A tragedy happened on Monday night when I journeyed to a local Apple store.  After psyching myself up to put my blogging fortune to good use by buying myself a brand spanking new iPad, I metro’d to the mall.  With excitement and anticipation, I figured I would put it to the best of use by being able to blog anywhere, anytime, at a moment’s notice.  The universe of EMR and EHR ideas would flow onto the Happy EMR Doctor’s blog at a dizzying pace, and the latest and greatest revelations would form more quickly than ever before.

But when I arrived at my final destination, I noted two things.  First, the store was a madhouse, and the wait time to begin speaking with a salesperson promised to be at least 20 minutes.  I don’t know if any of you out there have had any similar experiences, but our Apple store has gotten extremely busy lately.  Too bad I sold my stock back in 2002, before the boom.

As I suddenly wished I had just shopped online, I also saw that the iPads on display were SO TINY!  After seeing several patients of mine working on their iPads as I greeted them at their visits, the little bundles of sweet joy seemed to take on monolithic size (or maybe in retrospect it was just my overzealous enthusiasm).  Did the fluorescently-T shirted Apple employees bring out the midget pads?  Dismayed and conflicted was I.

Me, dismayed by an Apple product?  How could this happen?  After finally pulling myself together enough to play around with two of the little guys, still, I couldn’t help myself from looking around inquisitively for the table with the real iPads.

Unfortunately my search was in vain.  I cried that night on the train home.  Alas, for now, I guess it’s back to the drawing board and soldiering on to dream about other uses for that sweet blogger dough.  Maybe I just need more time.

Dr. West is an endocrinologist in private practice in Washington, DC.  He completed fellowship training in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. West opened The Washington Endocrine Clinic, PLLC, as a solo practice in 2009.  He can be reached at doctorwestindc@gmail.com.

About the author

Dr. Michael West

Dr. West is an endocrinologist in private practice in Washington, DC. He completed fellowship training in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. West opened The Washington Endocrine Clinic, PLLC in 2009. He can be contacted at doctorwestindc@gmail.com.

3 Comments

  • Embrace the technology.

    The platform that most EMRs have been designed for is standard computer screen.There is a tendency for software designers to try and cram as much useful data as they can into this space. For the physician that wants to see everything at once, there is clamor to cram in even more tabs, charts and errata into this space. Software designers are more than eager to comply. This is the old paradigm.

    Mobility is the new paradigm. The art of designing new user interfaces showing just what the physicians needs at that moment in the exam process is challenging but doable. The iPad has plenty of real estate if used wisely.

    Dr. Gregory Phillips
    CMIO, echoBase Software

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