Healthcare Sector Adopts Tablet PCs

The global market for tablet PC devices in healthcare is expected to increase to USD 1.7 billion for 2013, reflecting an increase of nearly 27% over the prior year. These are the latest findings of Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA), an independent medical market research firm.

The growing demands on the health industry have resulted in higher demand for new and better medical technology products, driving new technologies in the health IT segment in response to the increased needs of an aging population, decreasing healthcare resources, and a shortage of qualified medical professionals. These factors, as well as streamlining and efficiency demands, changes in reimbursement, off-site medical care, new wireless technologies (including wireless monitoring technologies), medical error reduction measures, and proven cost-effectiveness, are driving the demand for Tablet PCs for healthcare.

Viewing radiology images, ordering e-prescriptions, and filling out a patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) are among the tasks that physicians and other healthcare professionals are using tablet PCs for in a healthcare setting, since they mimic clipboards and serve functions performed by other products already used by physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers. The increasing adoption of tablets in the health industry will drive developers and manufacturers to continue to rollout new, advanced products, securing a healthy market for upgrades and replacement units.

“Tablet PCs are increasingly being used for a variety of tasks in the health field including access to patient records at the point of care, improved viewing capabilities for medical images, and easy offsite patient monitoring,” said report author Kalorama analyst Melissa Elder. “These are among the devices making EMR a reality in healthcare, without them it would be difficult to pin healthcare workers to a desktop.”

According to the report, the Apple (Cupertino, CA; USA) iPad series are the most prominent of these devices, but other competitors generate a significant amount of usage as well, including Samsung (Seoul, Korea), Panasonic, Hewlett Packard, Motion Computing, Lenovo (Beijing, China), Fujitsu, Tangent, and others.

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