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The iPad: Impact on Patient Heathcare

Looking at the Medical Uses of iPad Apps

The iPad has forced its way into the tablet market and with its easy of use and portable size has attracted the attention of many from the healthcare industry. Much gratitude belongs to its sibling, the iPhone, for leading the way, but credit must be given where it belongs. So how does the iPad affect the health care of ordinary people like yourself?

The iPad has many apps at its disposal which make our health care easier. Many of the difficulties in seeing your doctor can now be answered by the iPad, or via the iPad. Thanks to its comfortable size and increasing medical awareness by developers, we are able to perform tasks such as finding information about a particular drug, side-effects of medicine, trouble-shooting your symptoms and soon attending appointments all from behind the iPad.

After a lightening tour of the uses of the iPad for healthcare and its effectiveness today, I found a massive list of incredibly useful apps that are worth your attention.  Epocrates is one example which has a free version that amazingly includes many drug interactions, pill identification and even a medical calculator. There are many other great apps such as the 3D Heart, which allows you to examine the human heart in its entirety in 3D! In amazement you will be pushed from one app to another.

Fig 1.0 – Epocrates: Great medical app with many great features. From dosage look-up to pill identification. Why not try the free version. Apps like this are revolutionizing our health and provide us with so many options.

Moral Obligation

Providing help for people with special needs is a moral obligation for us all and especially those in the medical industry. Phrase Board can make this easier. This great iPad App supports people with speaking difficulties.  Phrase Board allows people to convey their messages by pressing simple, obvious buttons.

Fig 2.0 – Phrase Board. This is a great app for people with learning difficulties as they are able to convey their message as they want with the click of few buttons. There are many great apps that target people with special needs and it is just great seeing such support is available on the iPad.Read more about Phrase Board >>

Where the iPad lacks

Personally, I would welcome anything that helps me avoid the long lines at my GP, however it’s not possible for the iPad to cater for everyone. Some patients require personalized care and many of the procedures associated with this are performed in person, tying this with the iPad is not possible especially since it doesn’t include any features for taking blood samples.

Can it go further than this?

App developers are getting smarter, technology is improving and Apple is certainly aware of the need and interest of the health care industry towards the slick iPad.  I am particularly keen on improving the services provided by the NHS using the iPad. Currently when you get into a minor incident and want to find out if you require a visit to the hospital for your swollen knee, you will likely ring the NHS Helpline in after around 15 minutes of questions you will be informed with relevant advice. With the iPad, this can be reduced dramatically. By showing your ankle on the camera, NHS workers will able to zoom in/out and provide an immediate answer. If this service was provided on a subscription basis (say £60 per year) I am sure everybody would be happily to invest their pennies for a better quality service.

Fig 3.0 – The future Portable GP. Imagine phone consultations with your doctor using your Ipad. Wouldn’t this make life much easier?

Hopefully we will see more of this great work. Check out these cool links for more medical iPad apps and articles:

Should the Medical World Care? Yes!
With the iPad, Apple may just revolutionize medicine
Ipad for Surgery

Post by the multi-talented Jibril on our Web Development team. If you have an iPad Development job that could shake up the medical industry, give us a call.