Timeline of Tablets Adoption in the Healthcare Industry

The continuous adoption of iPads and other tablets both by consumers as well the enterprises has put an immense pressure on the healthcare industry to evolve and take a plunge into this newest technology. This pressure further burdens with the advent of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture, increased use of mobile apps by the consumers and the increasing rate of adoption of smart phones and mobile technology by doctors, vendors and other healthcare staff. All these factors have constituted to introduce a whirlwind of change in the healthcare industry as well. For now, let us have a personal look at the timeline of tablet adoption across the healthcare industry.

Doctors and support staff were the first adopters of tablets just as they were the first adopters of smart phones and mobile apps as well. They have now formed the demographic that uses them the most in the healthcare industry. Drug store owners were on the second spot in terms of tablet adoption, as they were looking for better, efficient and convenient ways to serve their consumers. They adopted them and quickly realized their importance prescription and non-prescription drug order applications; provide store and pharmacy locations and crucial drug-related information to the patients.

Next to follow was the pharmaceutical industry and they used tablets to convey important drug related information to doctors, nurses and patients. This prevented them from prescribing any medicine to the patients that could affect them adversely. This timely information made them save precious lives of many and escaping from costly expenditures that they were forced to make by paying in lawsuits and treating unwanted drug interactions. This instant availability of drug information to the patients and doctors resulted in fewer cases of misdiagnosis, safer drug prescription, quicker approvals of Rx prescriptions and reduction of medical negligence lawsuits.

The biotech industry was the third entrant in the league and they adopted tablets for collecting observation data, field level monitoring and quick image capturing using HD cameras present in tablets. Genentech is the best example, as this company adopted tablets on a very huge basis by issuing more than 7000 iPads to its employees working at different locations in the world. These tablets were designed to run both customized as well as native mobile apps and provide accurate information such as current status of research on many drugs and treatments that the company was working on. They provided a dedicated communication hub supported by Apple's Facetime and iChat that allowed users sitting in US office to connect with employees sitting at 30 different locations worldwide through chat or voice message. Tabs are the best mode for collecting field information and patient data in clinical trials. Unlike the traditional way of data collection, tablets allow doctors to record audio, video and high-resolution images of the patients and send them across for processing and referencing in a centralized repository.

The latest entrants in the bandwagon are the healthcare institutions as they are now quickly adopting tablets culture. They have been using tablets for patient monitoring, financial management, inventory management, sending important notifications to patients, support staff and vendors, communication and for managing task lists. Many hospitals across the US have started using tablets by providing highly efficient iPads to their doctors, paramedics, pharmacists and administrative staff. They are using tablets to schedule patient checkups for both out-patient department as well as internal patient care, issue prescriptions, collect and transmit patient information to concerned departments, using live audio and video conferencing features to enhance collaborations. Tablets have left smart phones behind in terms of popularity and use and this is why, they are being adopted rapidly across the healthcare sectors of various economies of the world.