Well, well... it seems that Apple representatives have been rather busy over the past six weeks or so, scuttling back and forth between Apple headquarters and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Does this have something mysteriously to do with Steve's health, or is it something all together different?
Thankfully, Steve health seems to be just dandy, and rather according to a January 9th. post on VentureBeat.com , it seems that Apple is just targeting its upcoming mythical tablet, in addition to many things, as a medical tablet as well. This, my dear two or three readers, makes a lot of sense to me. As a medical device Apple's upcoming 'iSlate' may just be the perfect tool that the medical community has been waiting for! On the other hand, however, this could end up being bad news indeed for dedicated medical tablets such as Motion Computing's C5 tablet. Regarding the iSlate as a medical device, and writing for VentureBeat's MoileBeat section, Paul Boulin wrote:
"Wilk, the founder of a startup company backed by the Y-Combinator incubator group, wrote on his blog that “My Dad plays golf with Cedas-Sanai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks.”
In a phone call, Wilk said the number of visits was “three or four” and that his second-hand information suggested Apple wasn’t yet trying to close a sale, but rather probing for possible uses for the new device, which is almost certainly the tablet computer Apple plans to debut on January 27th."
According to Motion Computing's official site, the C5 is described as:
"The sealed Motion C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) is a hospital-grade device specifically designed for use by clinicians across healthcare environments. Its rugged, disinfectable design, superior ergonomics and integrated features provides improved productivity while helping organizations to support the “five rights” of patient care (right patient, right time, right medication, right dosage, right route). Designed based on input from thousands of clinicians and with integrated technology from Intel® Health, the C5 brings reliable, automated patient data management directly to the point of care. Get a handle on patient care with the Motion C5. It’s highly portable. It’s lightweight. And, it’s ready to work for you."
Considering that the 'iSlate', or whatever it ends up being called, is expected to sell for under $1,000, it would not only be able to easily compete with the Windows based C5 tablet on price, but, as well, offer features that the C5 could never even hope or dream of offering, including:
- Access to the thousands upon thousands of APP STORE developers.
- The ability to wirelessly access all of a patient's medical history, including their current conditions, drug prescription, family information, etc.
- The ability to instantly access, with simple multi-touch swipes, the most up-t0-date medical magazines and journals
- The ability to access medical encyclopedias and drug information libraries
- The ability to consult with other doctors via voice, video and text messaging.
When you think about it, the possibilities of Apple's upcoming iSlate, in a medical setting, could be utterly limitless in its scope and breath. The ability of providing doctors, on-the-go, with vital medical information, while making their hospital rounds, would be more than just a convenience for the doctors themselves, but for their patients it could mean far better care and treatment. Being able to access vast amounts of information wirelessly, on-the-fly, would help to free up a lot of valuable time that doctors now spend in their offices or medical libraries looking up the latest medical news that could, in the end, make all the difference for their respective patients.
In conclusion, I can really see the benefit of marketing Apple's upcoming iSlate as a medical device, and regardless of whether the iSlate sells for over, or for under $1,000, for both doctors and the their patients, the iSlate could be priceless!
And that's my 2 cents 4 this Monday, January 11, 2010
C5 illustration via: Motion Computing
2 comments:
The only thing that the Apple "iSlate" has over the motion tablet mentioned is its access to the App store but even this may not be that great of an advantage. Motion must have access to applications that work in the medical industry or they obviously wouldn't be in the industry to begin with.
Also, according to motion's website, the C5 has an RFID, barcode scanner and fingerprint reader. These features to me seem to make the device much more secure than any consumer targeted product.
Plus with all the buzz around the Apple tablet, if they ever do end up in a hospital expect to hear stories of them being swiped or "gone missing" a lot.
Dear Anonymous, thanks for your input. As a dedicated medical instruments, I'm sure the C5 will always have an advantage in some respects. However, the iPhone is expected to also be getting an RFID barcode scanner, so it's lways possible that the iSlate, or whatever it ends up being called, will receive one as well. The Cost of the iSlate should be less than one-half of the C5, so with a few accessories, who knows, the iSlate may, or it may not, give the C5 a real run for its money! Again, thanks for your input as it was much appreciated.
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