The iPad did not focus on the Acute Care Market, but it included the Acute Care Market in the Venn Diagram for the market the iPad just advanced.

They just opened the sidewalk for a usable tablet to enter into everyday life, akin to how the original cell phone opened the path for the penetration of mobile phones in our lives today.

This device lowers barriers – it just took away the the main argument I hear from people ‘nothing like it exists so why should I care’.

It just opened up the opportunity to put it in the hands of the tech-savvy medical sales people who get in front of the health care providers every day; it opened an option to put it in the hands of the children of the health care providers; it just created Tablet PC awareness on a broader scale than before – we didn’t spend a dime for this advertising, but we can leverage it to penetrate the market earlier.

It also lowered the barrier to entry for the innovator. Anyone with an idea on a medical pad can now just grab a Mac computer and the Software Development Kit, then can prototype their concept without having to build a tablet or even own one.

I expect to see a Senior project this year to be done by Student Engineers/Graphic Designers/ User Interface Designers/Ethnographers and the next generation of Medical Doctors.

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Anyone who works with emergent technologies continually faces this type of situation. I call it the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ attitude. The Pony Express was never broke, but the telegraph made it better. The telegraph wasn’t broke, but we made the information transfer more efficient – Today my girlfriend telegraphs me every day, but we just label it as text messages.

With this product Apple lowered barriers which we can capitalize on – it lowered the R&D for me to create a prototype; it lowered the cost to simply demonstrate software to the user; it lowered the difficulty it will take for you to sell a tablet to your users in the future.

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Let’s look into the future, but first let’s just say what we want a tablet to do for Acute Medical Care? It is a data collection and data retrieval system.

Medical records – data.
Pictures – data.
Order scripts – data.
Everything – data.

Two to ten years down the road the input device won’t matter as much. Each user will carry a personal information entry and retrieval system, and they’ll have secure access to get into whatever data they need for their life (job, personal, travel, etc).

The way to win is not by selling a unique HW platform to the healthcare systems; the way to win is to sell the great Information System that is configurable to the input/output devices that users want to use.

Think about one progression of this:
1. prototype your back end data security and storage/retrieval method
2. target the most pervasive technology used at the time of launch – say a laptop
3. target it on a system which is brand new such as the iPad
4. when you have a large base of users tied to your input/output system the HW platform people come to you or directly to your users to ask for input on how they can make their platform better to target your market – this base information is where they generate innovation.

I love answering questions so feel free to ask them or give varied opinions.

Always have fun!

John

At various times, I’ve looked at the mobile/tablet offerings from Microsoft (I come from a strong Microsoft background), but I was never as excited about a platform as I was seeing the iPad yesterday. With the high mobility, the long battery life (longer than your typical shift), GPS, etc, it’s a fantastic device for home health worker, as well as clinicians in the office/clinic environment.

I’m looking forward to developing for it.

Kyle Davis, BigSprocket LLC

As I already mentioned in other forums, I don’t understand why the adoption of context aware systems is not being embraced more, and everyone is discussing on a user-interface level. Wouldn’t it make more sense if systems would automatically link with changes in the environment (location, identity, activity, time)?

Our internal research has shown, that combining business process management and context aware technology could increase productivity of clinical staff in some cases with more than 20%.

So before investing on fancy user interface technologies such as surfaces and iPads, the industry should focus more on things that really make a difference. But then again, if technology is that pervasive that you can’t “show” it on stage, it probably never will get real momentum.

Tablets have generally been a failed technology. They are awkward to use and lack a keyboard.
A clam shell, convertible design is better because of LCD protection and an integral keyboard.
Many tablets are already on the market. The iPad does nothing to advance current technology.
Agree that user changeable batteries and a multitasking operating system are essential.
Also agree that it would be nice to have an overcoat sized device that is both a good cellular telephone and a general purpose computer.