Knock, Knock!
Who’s there?
Doctor.
Doctor who?
Doctor who owns an iPad, along with 26 percent of my peers.
A good pun it’s not, but the facts are worth my terrible setup: Fully one quarter of European doctors own an iPad, according to a survey of “1,207 practicing physicians in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK.”
These numbers, gathered by Manhattan Research, aren’t so surprising on their own: Doctors are probably one of a few groups who can afford the tablet in these gloomy days of recession. The neat part comes when we learn that these doctors are taking their iPads to work, and using them for 27 percent of their “professional internet use.”
Professional internet use includes reading journals, looking things up, and watching videos — exactly what you and I do, only better, because it is being done by doctors. Half of this “professional” internet access is still done using regular computers, but a 27 percent share after just two years, using the physicians’ own iPads, is pretty impressive.
The doctors also use various medical apps, although not all of these are as well made as you might hope. Last year Pfizer was forced to withdraw [PDF] its Rheumatology Calculator app for outputting “incorrect values.”
I hope that iPads become official medical tools. I broke my leg over a year ago and I still keep losing the bits of paper containing my instructions, x-rays and appointments. It would be way better if the doc and I could just beam the info to each other and then get on with a quick game of Words With Friends in the newly freed-up time.
[Via PM Live]
