The ability to break free from the desktop and take the EHR mobile has been at the top of providers’ wish lists since the EHR Incentive Programs kicked adoption into high gear. While plenty of vendors have proudly debuted mobile-friendly versions of their software, providers are still in the process of purchasing tablets or allowing clinicians to bring their own devices.
Peter Han, VP of US Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) for Microsoft, sat down with EHRintelligence to give providers some tips about what to keep in mind when selecting the mobile hardware that will allow organizations to cut the cord.
What are the top features of a healthcare-friendly tablet?
I would say three things really stand out in terms of what we’ve heard a lot back from the market: cleanliness, security, battery life, and portability.
When it comes to portability, we’ve heard more and more about different health care professionals who are interested in the eight-inch form factor. When you think about screen size, I think the first generation of devices was very focused on a 10 or 11 inch screen, and there’s clearly still a big niche there. In more recent months, we’ve heard about the emergence of interest in the eight-inch category because it’s more of a one-handed device, something that you can put in a pocket or a jacket.
As for the cleanliness point, I think that antimicrobial surfaces and the ability to maintain the low-germ environment in hospitals is something that a lot of our OEMs are very aware of. So when you think about the difference health care tablets that are in the market, there’s clearly a big focus on that.
In terms of security and manageability, we hear a lot about this phenomenon of BYOD, or bring your own device. But yes, we get a lot of concern from system administrators about people who bring in these heterogeneous devices that aren’t linked to a backend server infrastructure where identities and security levels, permission level can be managed. Particularly if they access sensitive data like patient records and so forth, there’s a lot of concern about making sure that security manageability can be addressed.
I think another feature that we hear a lot about is long battery life. Physicians want something that will stand up to eight plus hours as they’re doing the rounds.
Also, the 3G and 4G cellular capability is something that is a big differentiator for a tablet. Over half of tablets are sold without that built in connectivity and they rely on WiFi networks, which at times can be very spotty. So when there is a cellular capability in addition to provide that redundancy, a lot of health care providers are telling me that’s a helpful differentiator for the devices.
Are providers switching over entirely to tablets, or do mobile devices still supplement rolling carts with desktop PCs?
Primarily, I would say we’re seeing tablets as additives to the environment because clearly you still have situations where people need to type. They need to produce a lot of content. They need that attached keyboard or the bigger screen for better viewing angles and whatnot. So there’s still quite a bit of desktop and notebook volume going into the health care space. Broadly speaking, healthcare is part of our professional or commercial PCs based and we’re seeing double-digit year over year growth there, so we’re still pretty healthy in that traditional form factor.
At the same time, of course, there are also a lot of new use cases where you’ve got these roving professionals, people who need to access patient records or synthesize different data sources on the go, and in that setting the tablet can make a lot of sense.
We also have scenarios where doctors or nurses are doing more handwritten input, so they’re now using a stylus to be able to handwrite data into a tablet screen in ways that they couldn’t with a traditional PC.
Are providers attracted to tablets with healthcare-specific features that might be more expensive, or are they investing in traditionally cheaper consumer-level technologies?
I would say it’s a pretty diverse range. We see some buyers in health care that are more value conscious and so they’ll be talking tablets that are more in that $400 to $600 range, providing maybe a little bit more consumer-like functionality but not as much on the ruggedization, the durability, the longer battery life. We also see a fair number of healthcare buyers who are willing to pay for the extra capability.
There are a number of very specifically engineered devices intended for healthcare. They have a handheld grip for easy portability from the doctors. They’ve got that Gorilla Glass from Corning that’s really drop resistant and can be wiped with moist towelettes to keep them low-germ, and some of them are rubberized to withstand drops or rough handling in that hospital environment. They feature a bunch of things around engineering, like the magnesium frame to prevent the screen from shattering.
All those things will add up to an extra cost, without a doubt. It gets you well above $1000, which is a lot more than you’d pay for a discount tablet if you walk into a consumer setting. But at the same time, it provides a whole number of things around that ruggedization, the identity and security management that are very unique to the healthcare setting. We’ve seen quite a few buyers in the industry of up-sell to that.
