At $499 per download, the most expensive piece of software in the new online Microsoft Windows Store for the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system is a mobile electronic medical record from Pariscribe, a Toronto-based health IT vendor. It also is the first EMR built for the Microsoft Surface line of tablets that will hit the market when Windows 8 is released Oct. 26.

Pariscribe introduced the product, called EMR Surface, last month, in anticipation of the latest version of Windows, which Microsoft is positioning as a more business-oriented operating system than the two platforms that hold almost a duopoly on the mobile market, Apple iOS and Android. "We feel Microsoft Surface and Windows 8 will dominate, at least in the office environment," Pariscribe President and CEO Manny Abraham tells MobiHealthNews.

Pariscribe has been developing EMR Surface since January and testing it in physician offices since May, Abraham says.

Abraham believes Windows 8 will bridge the mobile and desktop environments better than the two major mobile operating systems, making Surface potentially more useful for enterprises than the iPad or any of a number of Android tablets. It also allows software developers to create common views on fixed and mobile computers; many organizations have struggled with translating a PC view to a tablet screen.

EMR Surface, like other Pariscribe products, is available in the U.S., but not yet certified for "meaningful use," though Abraham says testing is underway and the EMR should have 2014 certification in the next couple of months. The new 2014 certification standards cover both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the federal health IT incentive program.

EMR Surface, which is intended for primary care, is the first mobile offering from Pariscribe, and there are more in the pipeline. Abraham promised specialty medical and dental versions around the beginning of 2013. The specialty EMR will, like its desktop equivalent, have full support for medical imaging through Pariscribe's existing picture archiving and communications system (PACS) suite.

Pariscribe also is working a kiosk-style clinic patient check-in system for Surface tablets that will sell for $249.