Physicians prefer the iPad

According to MobiHealthNews's infographic posted on August 26, the iPad has "gain[ed] a small foothold in healthcare."

A February Software Advice Survey of 178 healthcare professionals and students found that the majority need devices with WiFi, resistance to dust and liquids, lightweight hardware, fingerprint access, barcode scanning and a camera, although Software Advice analysts concluded that the iPad did not have all these features.

However, the iPad is currently being piloted at hospitals in the US and Japan (US: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and St. Louis Children's Hospital; Japan: Kobe University Hospital) for use during surgery, data entry during rounds, patient education and distraction, X-ray, EKG and patient monitoring.

Medical schools have also started distributing iPads as the trend moves towards dynamic e-medical textbooks.

Presently there are over 300 medical iPad apps and nearly one third are free. For more insights and reviews on apps, that include teaching manuals in HD, and their compatibility, go to: http://www.imedicalapps.com/

To see how other devices (Motion C5, Panasonic Toughbook H1, BlackPad, Cisco Cius, Dell Streak) measure up for the medical field, get a copy of the MobiHealthNews' 2010 report "Apple's iPad vs. The Tablet PCs in Healthcare" ($99/€78) through: http://mobihealthnews.com/research/ipad-vs-the-tablets-in-healthcare/