Mount Sinai School of Medicine's senior director for voice and data services, Andrew Pizzimenti isn't sure that the "Holy Grail" of mobile devices for health practitioners has been created yet. During a virtual interview at the Cisco Live event held in San Francisco this week, Pizzimenti told Computer World that the device might be a smartphone, an e-book reader or a netbook or maybe none of the above.

Pizzimenti wants to equip his health practitioners with devices that allow them to access electronic patient records but also enable them to have one phone number instead of the several numbers they currently have between their various devices. 

While many of the form factors he's considering don't have phones built in at all, there's also the problem that the big EHR providers, like Cerner and Epic Systems, have yet to build applications for these platforms. 

We recently wrote about an iPhone simulator app that would allow health practitioners to access Windows based applications like EHRs developed by Cerner, but those aren't necessarily leveraging the mobile platform to the best of its ability.

Pizzimenti seems to be leaning toward an e-book form factor like the Kindle, but those don't have phones built-in. Mount Sinai's search for the Holy Grail of mobile devices is illustrative of the frustration many in the industry feel. However, it seems much more likely that the big EHR vendors will begin developing apps for existing smartphone platforms, than it does for e-book makers to add phone functionality.

For more check out the source article from Computer World