Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ ability to generate wild enthusiasm seems to be infecting the medical world, with suggestions that Apple marketers are touring Los Angeles hospitals pushing the company’s latest “insanely great” product, the iPad tablet, as an ehealth tool.
Apple prescribes a tablet
Online, doctors are discussing its potential to replace the physician’s clipboard. Others are excited by the prospect that devices like these could replace medical textbooks with dynamic medical ebooks that can be rented by the chapter and continually updated.
In an online article orthopedic oncologist Dr Felesfa Wodajo says the proliferation of devices like the iPad and the Amazon Kindle DX – a slightly larger version of the Kindle ereader which is being trialled against traditional textbooks at Case Western Reserve University – will be a significant advance for medical students and practitioners.
The real golden opportunity will come from continuing the engagement of the authors with the readers and, even more importantly, the readers with each other.
What this would open is a world where learning occurs just as much in the “wild” as it does in the classroom and where the roles of students and teachers start to intertwine. In other words, something like the real world, rather than the sterile enclosure of the lecture hall.
While a Swiss software engineer, Nicolas Seriot, has expressed some security concerns about the iPhone operating system which will also power the iPad, an increasing number of doctors, including Melbourne GP Henry Konopnicki, aren’t waiting for the iPad. They’re already using the Apple iPhone in their practices, in a similar way to this iPhone medical timeline. Their interest is reflected in the fact that in the third quarter of 2009, the number of iPhone medical applications increased by almost 133 per cent.
Dr Konopnicki, one of the clinical leaders advising the National eHealth Transition Authority on development of ehealth in Australia, says clinicians who are considering using devices like the iPad need to develop a strategy for their use before they make the investment.
While most clinicians probably see little incentive to spend time and money on electronic tools, Dr Konopnicki saw a compelling business case for their use in his practice when he added an MBA to his already impressive list of degrees.
You’ll be able to read about the tools and strategies he developed in future posts on eHealth Central.
The iPhone is only a minor element in his comprehensive adoption of ehealth measures, but it’s an important one.
He uses the iPhone in conventional ways, such as downloading and listening to medical podcasts, but it also plays a role in the consult, helping to explain diagnoses for instance, using Netter’s Anatomy.
In his view, the willingness of doctors to provide patients with this sort of material “both elevates the doctor in the patient’s esteem, and adds to the therapeutic value of the consultation. The iPad’s larger screen would be even more effective in this role.
He uses the Epocrates RX mobile drug reference application, and others that allow doctors to brush up on matters like ECGs (heart tracings), and to address problems and enhance the quality of consultations in community settings like nursing homes and home visits.
“I can show patients You Tube video clips that demonstrate the use of asthma pumps or insulin injections etc.”
There are issues that he believes will have to be addressed if tools like these are to be widely adopted. In his view, the classic consult will have to be entirely re-engineered.
If you’re using or considering using an iPhone or other mobile device in your practice, I’d love to hear about it. How does it work as a tool? What do you think of the available apps, and issues such as re-engineering of practices to accommodate electronic tools. You can discuss this topic in the ehealth tools section of our forum.
