Golden Apple
A man is going to stride up a stage today and - with the world hanging on his every word - map out our nation’s economic future.
Unfortunately, that man won’t be Barack Obama. If recent past is precedent, the president’s passed his speechifying prime.
…you know, let’s ditch the pending comparison (as it’s been explored enough to be tortured).
Instead, I’ll assume…
- you’ve heard about the (sligthly hyped) Apple tablet;
- know that CEO Steve Jobs is introducing it today; and even
- gather that publishers and news outlets are hoping it revitalizes their media.
Now, add health care to the industries that the Apple tablet may save.
ReadWriteWeb: Apple’s “iTablet” - whatever it may be - could be destined to transform our care delivery system in a major way.
FierceMobileHealthcare: At the risk of sounding like a shill for Apple, [today] is a red-letter day for mobile healthcare. That’s when the computer-maker is expected to unveil its long-awaited tablet computer, likely to be a cross between a MacBook in terms of power and an iPhone with its touch-screen functionality and ease of use…I shall reserve judgment until I hear how much battery life this new product has, but I have a feeling we’re on the verge of something huge in healthcare.
There’s no doubt that mobile healthcare would get a huge boost from a user-friendly device that eases access to electronic health records. The market is well-primed, too. Many younger physicians use smartphones personally or professionally, and some medical schools began encouraging students to use iPhones (with their numerous medical apps) several years ago.
However, the reported cost - as much as $1,000 per device - seems prohibitive, especially in the early going. While Apple may discount for medical providers’ pilots, I’d bet we’re still two years or so from any tablet device making a significant impact on medicine.
Uh, they already use Tablet PCs at my doctor’s office.
But I won’t hold my breath on this “revolution” because I work Network Security and know well how little it takes for those documents to end up for the highest bidder. Just because it’s Apple does not make it inherently more secure, because often the problem in security isn’t the hardware, but the person using the hardware. Consider the trojan problem: you have to click a link or open a file to make a trojan work, and even though people are reminded every day, they still click. So yeah, there is great danger in going down this path if people aren’t educated about the dangers, like a lot of health problems strangely enough.