iPad Solves Healthcare Providers' Clipboard Conundrum

This article appears in the May 2012 issue of Medicine on the 'Net

Clipboards are used by healthcare organizations to collect patient information; however, the push to abandon paper processes has made them an obvious target in need of a high-tech solution. Some healthcare professionals are opting to replace their clipboards with mobile computing devices like the Apple iPad® in an effort to increase efficiency and reduce the headaches associated with paper and pencil–based data collection methods.

According to one recent survey by the SpyglassConsulting Group, 98% of physicians interviewed reported using mobile computing devices to support their personal and professional work flows. However, a common barrier to adoption included hospitals' resistance to support mobile devices on a corporate network due to security, reliability, and cost concerns.

This month, Medicine on the 'Net looks at two ways you can implement the iPad to solve the clipboard conundrum.

Company looks to cure patient registration fatigue
Tonic Health of MenloPark, Calif., is attempting to dramatically change medical data collection by replacing the dreaded patient registration clipboard with its own iPad application, which strives to make the data collection process fun for patients. That's right, we said it—fun.

"Anecdotally, we're finding that patients are willing to fill out 30% more questions with our tool because it is game-like, simple, fun, and intuitive," says Sterling Lanier, TonicHealth's CEO.