Which is the Right Tablet for You?
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Archives
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May 2, 2011 10:45 AM
With the launch of the new BlackBerry Playbook in Canada this week, the choice of tablets for physicians just became a little broader. However, despite the more portable form factor in comparison to Apple’s iPad2, there are a number of reviews that have been highly critical of the Playbook.
Information Week reported that the Playbook is not ready and lacks some basic features available from other tablets in the market.
In terms of a phone, I use a Blackberry and have been a fan of the devices for years. As someone who communicates a great deal via email, I find the keyboard and integration of email are the most useful features and they just work well. However, I have not yet personally jumped on the tablet bandwagon. For multimedia, the Blackberry is OK, but is nowhere near the capability of the iPhone or the new range of Android devices. However, this is a sacrifice I am willing to make for the benefit of keyboard and email. Would I buy a Playbook? The device is smaller than an iPad with a beautiful screen, but the integration with email is challenging as it has to tether to a Blackberry phone. Not as efficient as the other devices on the market.
Some of the core applications are also not currently available such as Blackberry Messenger, one of the most popular features on the phone. With this and other applications not yet available, it appears that the device is not yet ready for mainstream use. RIM must have been under a great deal of pressure to release the device with so many competitors coming into the market.
From a pure medical practitioner perspective, does the Playbook meet the needs of physicians? I can definitely see a place for a secure connected device in a hospital with a wide range of useful features. The ability for an emergency physician to look up key patient information at the bedside without having to access a fixed station computer in a common area; the ability for an anesthesiologist to access stat lab results or view images through the hospital’s digital imaging system. Most importantly, the ability to always be connected through a secure device that is just the right size to fit in a “white coat” pocket. (The iPad is just too big to carry in this way.) I am not sure how the device will work in a doctor’s office. Primary care physicians will probably opt for a device with a larger screen size that approximates the size of the current paper chart. This is for both data input and retrieval. I believe that the amount of information one needs to access during a patient encounter is just too much for a smaller form factor.
However, this is just my impression and I would be interested to hear from others who are currently using a Tablet in their practice either as their primary device to access an EMR or for remote data access.
Share your thoughts and experiences with tablets by clicking on the “Comments”' link below.
Originally posted on Canadian EMR
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