Doctors and Nurses Not So Thrilled On Mobile Computing
Gregg Malkary, managing director of Spyglass Consulting, presented the results of his study on how physicians perceive mobile computing during the “Staying Connected: Trends in Mobile Physician Solutions” session at Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). His main findings:
- Physicians have not found the ideal form factor yet. On one hand (literally) PDAs are often preferred because they are easy to carry around thanks to their small size, though they are found missing in processing power and screen space. On the other hand (or rather the two other hands), tablet PCs and notebooks which do offer more power and screen real estate, feel too heavy and bukly to be carried around all day.
- For a majority of respondents handwriting and speech recognition are just not reliable enough to be productive because they require a lot of training and still fail to recognize words often enough. Their users end up correcting their input all the time.
- Nurses, and to a much lower proportion doctors, felt that mobile devices pose an infection risk.
- Vendor hype led to disappointment when confronted with reality.
Maybe a very thin, foldable tablet with a thumb keyboard and digital pen would work for all, but such a device does not seem to exist yet at reasonable prices, if at all.
Update: recordings of HIMSS ‘06 sessions are available for sale here.
February 15, 2006 Related topics: Wireless, IT & software