Comments on: BlackBerry: Wireless health needs “belts and braces”

By: BlackBerry: Next step is gluing health IT together | mobihealthnews

BlackBerry: Next step is gluing health IT together | mobihealthnews — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:39 +0000

[...] Research In Motion’s Fraser Edward, whom we have interviewed a few times in the past (here and here), believes the key to driving wireless healthcare forward is workflow management and data [...]

By: Jerry Fahrni » BlackBerry versus iPhone popularity in healthcare.

Jerry Fahrni » BlackBerry versus iPhone popularity in healthcare. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:04:10 +0000

[...] mobilehealthnews: “For the record, BlackBerry has conducted clinical trials with smartphones paired with Bluetooth-enabled medical peripheral devices for years. Three of the company’s smartphones are among the five most popular smartphones in North America. At least one executive at BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion is a bit curious about all the hype around Apple’s recent medical foray with the iPhone. mobihealthnews recently had the chance to discuss wireless healthcare trends with Research In Motion’s Fraser Edward who heads the company’s Healthcare Marketing Group. In this second installment, Edward explains the points above and much, much more, including: which types of BlackBerrys physicians prefer, why wireless health needs to adopt a “belts and braces” approach, how RIM’s latest acquisition — Chalk Media — fits into wireless health, and what the BlackBerry App World’s advent signifies. Edward also shares his favorite App World app.” – Edwards goes on to talk about physician preferences for various BlackBerry devices, going as far as to say “to pinpoint the phones that I’ve seen us getting a lot of traction on within the medical community — it would be the Storm and the Bold“. If I were to use a BlackBerry device, I believe it would be the Storm. I like the idea of a touch screen more and more each day. However, I’ve heard many people claim the Bold is much better for messaging. The future of BlackBerry devices appears fuzzy as the iPhone’s popularity continues to grow. It seems that every physician, pharmacist and IT professional I see in the hospital is carrying an iPhone. Remember the days of the Palm Pilot and its incredible popularity? There was a time when Palm powered handheld devices enjoyed the same popularity as the BlackBerry devices do today. As the smart phone revolution got underway, Palm devices simply disappeared. The popularity of the iPhone will eventually do the same to the BlackBerry, especially when Apple begins offering the iPhone through other carriers. Among pharmacists in “my circle”, I am one of the few that chose not to change carriers for the iPhone. Only time will tell what will happen to BlackBerry smart phones, but I see the end sooner than later unless Research In Motion has something up its sleeve. Apple and the iPhone are simply too powerful. Good luck BlackBerry, you’re going to need it. [...]

By: Kevin McMahon

Kevin McMahon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:26:02 +0000

Great closing point! Too bad the tech hype gets all the press while the real results from clinical trials seem to linger by the side of the road in spite of exciting results. As a matter of fact one our earliest devices used in a couple of diabetes telemedicine trials was based on Blackberry as a real-time telemetry device running on the old Mobitex network.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:44:01 +0000

Nice spin job. Look, I have used a Blackberry for years, but it’s now collecting dust. When it comes to being a useful smartphone, the Blackberry is WAY behind the Apple iPhone. Its browser is insipid at best, and the underlying architecture of the Blackberry OS is simply not up to the task of mobile computing, especially compared to the iPhone.

One need only look at the growing volume of apps available for the iPhone, and especially medical practice-related apps. There’s not only more, but they are of a much higher quality than the Blackberry. On the matter of the QWERTY thumbboard of the Blackberry versus the keyboard of an iPhone, it’s a personal choice. Some will always want the physical keyboard. But after a week of learning, I found myself typing FASTER on the iPhone than the Blackberry. And with the ability to type in either portrait or landscape mode, this has only improved.

Don’t get me wrong – the Blackberry is a decent device. But for email, using the Web and mobile computing, the iPhone simply leaves it in the dust. For my practice, the iPhone is much easier to implement and administer, and we don’t have to pay the added cost of the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) which has often proven to be a single point of failure in the past.

So, bye-bye Blackerry. I’ll take an iPhone any day.