The iPad is simple. The moment you turn it on you are drawn into a very intuitive environment, one that can take you from website to photo album and from videos to apps and music. My seven year old sat in the Apple store playing with the iPad2 for 45 minutes and never asked me how to use. It is simple – and that’s what doctor’s love. It’s no wonder that seventy-five percent of U.S. physicians own some form of Apple device, such as an iPhone, iPad or iPod, this according to the new Taking the Pulse® U.S. v11.0 study from pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research.
Just one year after the iPad first hit the market, adoption has reached 30 percent of U.S. physicians and an additional 28 percent plan to purchase an iPad within the next six months. Why? Imagine that light weight device giving access to electronic medical records (EMR), online patient-physician communication, images and notes from the last visit and access to doctor peer-to-peer forums.
The precursor to the iPad, the iPhone, surged to dominate the physician smartphone market in 2011 as the number one smartphone platform used by physicians in the U.S.
The Pharma industry is another area that the iPad has taken hold of. The light weight, 1.5 pounds is easy to carry. The battery life – of 10 hours can be handled in a long shift. The hundreds of professional medical apps don’t hurt either.
Bottomline? The iPad and its competitors will continue to drive electronic and social media acceptance in a field that doesn’t always take change well.
*The new Taking the Pulse® U.S. v11.0 study from pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research.
