An ‘apple’ a day?
Jinfo Blog

9th November 2010

By Joanna Ptolomey

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Contrary to the popular saying – an apple a day ‘does not’ seem to keep the doctor away. It is a reciprocal feeling with Apple courting the healthcare sector with technology and applications? An increasing trend over the last couple of years, but is it good news for healthcare professionals and ultimately patients. Is it so unusual to see an Apple store employee giving a presentation on the most useful healthcare apps (http://digbig.com/5bctkm) to healthcare professionals including clinicians? Even more there is talk that they thinking of recruiting doctors specifically to engage in the marketplace? There are many signs that Apple are developing products in line with particular healthcare information delivery strands and areas. For example, smaller hospitals and community based practices for managing electronic health records and sharing information especially in the US. The large teaching and research hospitals are already committed to the big IT programmes and big suppliers. The UK picture varies in that the National Health Service (NHS) commits to national IT infrastructure programmes and at the moment electronic patient records are a hot potato but will be coordinated nationally. Tablets are increasingly becoming important ‘at point of need’ in the healthcare setting. A recent British Medical Journal article sets the scene for iPad use and how it will fit in with other existing devices (http://digbig.com/5bctmm). Of course the iPad is being followed by a swathe of other tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy, and a recent BBC article asks if they are ‘big enough, smart enough, cheap enough’ (http://digbig.com/5bctmn). We like technology, it allows us to find, use, share and manage information in ways we never could have before. But we have more tools today for sharing and managing information than you can shake a stick at – yet there is this perennial problem of information overload. Annabel Bentley’s blog on the British Medical Journal (BMJ http://digbig.com/5bctks) represents the all consuming ‘chicken and egg’ situation for healthcare professionals. She wryly jokes that reading 75 trials and 11 systematic reviews per day is all that will keep her up to date (http://digbig.com/5bctkt). You know I could write everyday about some new mobile device or apps development but does it matter? In healthcare does it make a difference to delivering patient care and point of need service delivery? At DigiPharm conference in October a Q&A session with doctors presented an interesting peek into differing clinician opinions on devices. Most see the mobile technology and applications as useful and newly qualified doctors need to have the essential knowledge to use smartphones/tablets. But it does not replace experience. There are also concerns over the dominance of vendors shaping the market with their technology and companion apps. For the moment an ‘apple a day’ is making for interesting time in healthcare service delivery. But information overload is still a huge problem – I think we need to make more room in that fruit basket.

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