Professionals across the healthcare industry, doctors in particular, are enthusiastically adopting iPads.
In 2011, only one year after launch, 30% of US physicians own an iPad and an additional 28% plan to purchase one within the next six months. This is in addition to the 81% of US physicians who own a smartphone."
This data is from the latest Manhattan Research survey of 2,041 US practicing physicians, Taking the Pulse® U.S. v11.0, and reinforces other studies that show physicians prefer the Apple device over a Windows-based tablet.
Major institutions, such as Stanford University School of Medicine giving iPads to medical students and other physicians, have helped adoption.
An American Medical News article says the iPad has “the right combination of ease of use, size, portability, long-lasting battery power and relatively low cost of adoption. For physicians, that meant adopting a technology that was the next best thing to paper charts, for a price that didn’t break the bank.” (For eyeforpharma’s series on iPads and pharma, see ‘Future pharma: Making the most of the tablet takeover’, ‘Future Pharma: A closer look at the iPad in pharma/physician relations’, ‘Pharma goes mobile: Making the most of the app opportunity’, and ‘Will the iPad kickstart a pharma sales and marketing revolution?’.)
Business or pleasure?
I had the opportunity to talk to Monique Levy, vice president of research at Manhattan Research, and asked if the iPads were being used primarily for work. “There is a lot of overlap, but certainly this is a work device,” said Levy.
I questioned whether the iPad is overtaking the use of the smartphone in the office. “For quick tasks, such as looking up a drug, physicians are still using their smartphones,” noted Levy.
“The iPad is for the more complex tasks when you need a bigger screen, such as writing medical notes or accessing electronic medical records.” (For more on smartphones, see ‘When does a smartphone become a medical device?’.)
Physicians are seeing this as a device that can do a whole group of functions. “The smartphone has limitations, but this gives an avenue to do other things, such as remote patient monitoring, viewing images, looking at patient results and using it as a learning tool with patients,” Levy explained.
Doctors indicated strong interest in being able to access electronic medical records (EMRs) through the iPad. “If physicians are motivated by a platform that is easy to carry around and will help them do their job easier, it will motivate the adoption of EMRs. In some practices, you can see the device really helping work flow,” said Levy.
The study also found that the affinity to Apple continues when it comes to smartphones, with the iPhone as the number one platform used by US physicians.
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