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iPad Ranks As First Choice For Doctors But IT Still Nervous About Privacy Issues

February 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Healthcare was one of the first fields to adopt the iPad after it launched two years ago. As with other fields, the initial use of the iPad in healthcare came from doctors and other professionals buying their own iPads and bringing them into their practices or along with them on rounds – a move that predated most of today’s BYOD planning.

A recent study of mobile technology in healthcare clearly shows that the iPad is the number one device used by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers with significantly greater use than Android or BlackBerry devices or even the iPhone.

“Based on our conversations, they are feeling the pressure from the physicians and staff to support those devices,” Manish Rai, head of industry solutions for Aruba (the company that conducted the study) said of the 130 healthcare IT professionals surveyed.

Overall the study shows the 85% of healthcare organizations allow and support the use of personally owned devices. The iPad is clearly the most common personally owned device with 83% of organizations supporting it. As for other devices:

  • 65% support the iPhone and/or iPod touch
  • 52% support personal BlackBerry devices
  • 46% support some version of Android devices

With physicians and other staff leading the effort for support of personal devices, it isn’t surprising that the iPad is topping the list. The device’s larger screen real estate makes it more useful for accessing data like electronic records, medical images, and reference material. It also makes the iPad a good choice for illustrating conditions and treatments to patients. It also presents less of a barrier to doctor/patient interaction that other electronic devices like laptops – a concern among some bioethicists.

How are mobile devices being used?

  • 58% are using virtualization technology for secure application access (this mirrors the overall high use of Citrix and other VDI solutions in healthcare due to the need compliance HIPPA and other privacy regulations)
  • 8% provide complete access to their hospital network on personal mobile devices outside of a VDI or similar solution
  • 24% provide some form limited access to hospital applications
  • 30% support VOIP calling (video or audio-only) or medical imaging on picture archiving and communication systems

The results definitely show that healthcare IT professionals are willing to support physician needs when it comes to mobile device, but that their is a distinct concern for data security and privacy – not surprising given the regulatory issues when it comes to healthcare.

See Full Article (Cult of Mac): Here

Filed Under: Business, Education, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Microsoft Office for iPad gets pictured, launch expected in coming weeks [updated]

February 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Microsoft is confirmed to be working on a version of its wildly popular Office productivity suite for Apple’s iPad, and The Daily managed to get some hands on time with the highly anticipated software ahead of its release. Microsoft Office for iPad will bring Word, Excel and PowerPoint functionality to Apple’s tablet — presuming the app is approved by Apple — and it is unclear if Microsoft has plans to add additional Office applications in the future. The app has a similar look to Microsoft’s OneNote app for iOS, which borrows largely from the Metro-themed Office software on the Windows Phone platform. The Daily’s report states that Microsoft plans to submit Office for iPad to Apple for approval in the coming weeks, though a firm time frame was not provided.

UPDATE Microsoft told ZDNet that the image above is a fake. The company did not comment on whether or not it has a version of Office for the iPad in development.

 See Full Article (Boy Genius): Here
Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Win a $10,000 App Store Gift Card from Apple

February 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Apple on Friday initiated a countdown to 25 billion iTunes App Store downloads. The running total currently sits just under 24.3 billion downloads and Apple is offering a prize to the user who downloads the 25 billionth application. “As of today, nearly 25 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks,” Apple wrote on its website. “Download the 25 billionth app, and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card. Just visit the App Store and download your best app yet.” Apple’s iOS App Store opened its doors in July 2008 alongside the launch of the iPhone 3G, and the company would later launch the Mac App Store in October 2010.

Article via (BoyGenius): Here

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Study Claims iPad App Boosts Student Math Skills

December 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This has been a banner year for the iPad in U.S. education – with tots to teens and university students using Apple’s magical device to learn.

How effective iPads are as a teaching tool is open to debate.

A small study, carried out by Michelle Riconscente, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California, offers some promising results, even with the necessary caveat that it was funded by theMotion Math app with a grant from the Noyce Foundation.Study Claims iPad App Boosts Student Math Skills

Riconscente studied 122 fifth graders in two Southern California schools to see whether their skills improved using the app. She was specifically looking at skills with fractions, described as “essential for future success in mathematics.”

Their skills were measured on a paper test vs. playing the game with similar questions on the iPad app. Interestingly, there were 34 items on the paper test; the iPad version of the test had 26 of the items,  due to the “inability of the computerized interface to render certain question types.”

Her findings?

Kids who used the app for 20 minutes for five days improved on a fractions test by an average of 15 percent compared to the control group. Using Motion Math also improved the kids attitudes about fractions by 10 percent – no small improvement if you remember how tedious they can be. The kids who used the app said they would gladly play it again or recommend it to their friends.

You can download the full report of the study in PDF here, or the summary published on GameDesk.

See Full Article (Cult of Mac): Here

 

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Contribute: A New Backchannel App from Freed-Hardeman

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The ability to maintain real-time online conversation alongside live spoken presentation is an ever-growing trend. Backchannel applications can help guide presentations by taking advantage of digital infrastructures that include wireless connectivity and devices.

To build on the success of our iKnow Application Suite, we decided in the summer of 2010 to build a backchannel application for use in the classroom. Our expectation was to create a way to capture “everything else” going on in a presentation that wasn’t coming from the speaker. We also wanted to make it easy for participants to add to the conversation that goes on in the backchannel.

Contribute, launched August 23, 2011, takes collaboration beyond simple backchannel communication by providing moderators (or faculty) a rich set of features to enhance the participants’ (students’) experience in a presentation (classroom). In addition to the main backchannel “stream”, Contribute also offers these tools (modules):

• Who’s Online    (quick view of all participants)
• Favorites    (personal bookmarks of participant posts)
• Twitter    (allows hashtag searches to supplement current session)
• Links    (repository of all URLs posted)
• Word Cloud    (presentation discuss tool)
• Polls    (audience response system)
• Replies    (display of all replies to user posts)

Participants can also “ditto” stream posts, embed links, files and images which create more meaningful, productive conversations in the backchannel.

In order to provide greater accessibility, we allow FHU account logins, Facebook account logins and Google logins. Users can also create a native Contribute account.

Contribute users can create their own backchannel session, send themselves archives of sessions they have participated in and it also allows users to use mobile devices to add to the conversation. Our application works well on any desktop, laptop, iPhone or iPad.

During the development of this application, our faculty were involved in providing feedback and offering valuable suggestions. Several of our modules can be attributed to our faculty involvement during the design and development process.

A.B. White, FHU instructional technologist, says this about Contribute:

“The simplicity of Contribute is what makes it a powerful engagement tool. Contribute enables participants to focus on the conversation, not the user interface. The tools that allow participants to examine the conversation and draw conclusions are simple to use as well. Above all, the application makes it easy to include a small group of individuals, a class of students or thousands of people located around the world in the conversation.”

As with many of our applications, students were heavily involved in the development process. Lance Williams, senior computer science major, states:

“I feel that helping to develop this application allowed me to see how the courses I’ve taken in my career at Freed are truly useful. The experience has been tremendous for me in understanding the difference in homework and real-world work. I had to deal with harsher deadlines and tougher problems, while knowing that my work didn’t only affect me but also the potential of this program and all it’s future users. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of seeing through the design, development, testing, releasing and updating the app. It has been a great experience.”

Contribute is an excellent example of the development that takes place at FHU. We strive to create emerging technologies that incorporate tenets of Web x.0 products that allow for collaboration and expanding of the learning experience.

See Full Article (FHU): Here

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Yale School of Medicine students get Apple iPads

August 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Yale School of Medicine students’ backpacks just got a whole lot lighter.

In an effort to save paper and make course materials more accessible, the Yale School of Medicine is providing all its students with an iPad 2 — Apple’s latest version of its tablet computer — for use in the classroom and clinical settings, medical school administrators announced in a press release Tuesday. Students will be able to download the entire medical curriculum on the device, as well as use it to read and handle confidential patient health information, said Michael Schwartz, assistant dean for curriculum at the medical school. The device will be theirs to keep even after graduation.

“It’s portable, it’s wireless, it’s responsive, it’s interactive and it will provide tremendous opportunities for our students to engage with the material,” said Richard Belitsky, deputy dean of education at the medical school.

The school is distributing about 520 iPads in total, Schwartz said. First-year students and third- through fifth-year students have already received theirs, and the rest will be given out by early next week.

Administrators first considered giving students iPads in order to reduce paper use, Schwartz said. The school spends about $100,000 each year to copy, collate and distribute course materials, he said, which students themselves find inconvenient.

Yale’s initial expenditure this year on the new iPads was about $600,000, but in future years money saved on printing expenses will cover the cost of the devices, Schwartz said.

The School of Medicine tested the use of iPads in the classroom with a pilot group of nine first-year students last spring. The group included some students who self-identified as not “technology-savvy,” but even they responded positively to the device, Schwartz said. For those who remain committed to pen and paper, printed course materials will be available for purchase.

Robert Stretch MED ’14, a student in the pilot group, said he much preferred reading course notes electronically to having them on paper.

“We get binder upon binder of notes, literally several feet of notes, and carrying them to the library or to class is just unrealistic,” Stretch said.

The pilot program allowed students to give feedback to administrators about which applications on the iPad were most useful to them, Schwartz said. As a result the school purchased iPads equipped with the application GoodReader, which students said was the best for annotating PDF files. The University also decided to give each student an Apple Bluetooth keyboard for use with the device, or the option to buy a keyboard online, since students found external keyboards essential for note-taking.

See Full Article (Yale News): Here

 

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , ,

iPads Deployed At University Of Northern Kentucky

August 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Another successful iPad deployment has been announced, this one at the University of Northern Kentucky (http://eloc.nku.edu/). They are one of the few Masters programs in the U.S. that are using all iPads for their courses.

Incoming students in the Northern Kentucky University Master of Science in Executive Leadership and Organizational Change (ELOC) program this fall will be the first cohort group (and NKU students) to receive iPads for use in the classroom.

The move is part of NKU’s continued efforts to provide emerging mobile technologies that accommodate student expectations related to an anytime, anyplace teaching-learning process.

“Forward-thinking schools are focusing on e-learning,” says Dr. Kenneth Rhee, director of the ELOC program within NKU’s Department of Management. “We want to be at the front edge. There is a lot of potential for what this can do.”

Each iPad, which is included in the ELOC program tuition, will be pre-loaded with program materials including resources created by the NKU Office of Information Technology such as iNKU (NKU’s mobile app), enhanced collaboration applications and applications that can be used as supplemental study aids.

“We hope our students incorporate this new technology not only into their school lives but also into their work and personal lives,” says Dr. Tracey Sigler, chair and associate professor of management. “It is all about adaptability.”

The NKU Office of Information Technology is working with the ELOC program to create customized applications that can be used in its program, and applications that can be leveraged for the rest of the university.

“We are supporting iPads to facilitate the learning experience in and out of the classroom,” said Tim Ferguson, NKU CIO. “Students want the ability to access materials anytime, anywhere. These applications will enhance faculty and student interactions as well as students’ interactions with one another, and students’ options for studying, taking notes and more.”

The ELOC program’s use of the iPad also aligns with NKU green initiatives.

“We used to print out handouts. Now, students can use their iPads,” says Rhee. “It is a paradigm shifter.”

See Full Article (MacTech): Here

 

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , , ,

IPad-Powered Mass Transit Kiosks Catch A Ride On Charleston Trolleys

August 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Slicker Interactive (http://www.slicker.com) and Charleston (South Carolina) Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) have launched the first iPad-powered mobile kiosk that gives CARTA riders a whole new perspective of Charleston.

Image via Slicker Interactive

The kiosks — installed on all 12 trolleys servicing the Carta Dash routes – allow bus riders to interact with and search Slicker’s City Slicker app. The app provides users with information about cultural sites and businesses. In addition to the interactive kiosk, the iPad powers a flat-screen monitor that displays videos and images of establishments the bus is approaching.

One of the champions and primary backers of the new kiosks has been Charleston Mayor Joe Riley. “I am pleased to announce that Charleston is the first city in the world to benefit from City Slicker’s brand new technology,” he says. “There is so much content and useful information, it will be a tremendous help and first class guide for anyone traveling in our city. The additional attraction of City Slicker is sure to be a critical step towards increasing mass transit ridership.”

See Full Article (MacTech): Here

 

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Patient check-in moves to the Apple’s iPad

August 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Just three weeks after its iPad-native EHR made news for gaining ONC-ATCB-certification, drchrono has launched an iOS app to replace paper-based patient check-in.

Image via Healthcare IT News

Company execs say the OnPatient app can be downloaded to the iPad for free and integrated into a medical practice as a standalone application – the patient check-in software also integrates with with the drchrono’s iPad EHR.

“The OnPatient check-in app digitizes the waiting room and eliminates significant barriers to mass adoption of patient check-in technology,” said Michael Nusimow, co-founder and CEO of drchrono. “Proprietary check-in hardware is prohibitively expensive and integration with existing EHR systems is too complex. We designed the OnPatient app to be intuitive for both physicians and patient users to create a better patient check-in experience.”

On-Patient features customizable templates that enable physicians to eliminate paper forms and clipboards in the waiting room. Upon download, the OnPatient app allows patients to:

  • Complete family medical history and demographic information
  • Complete insurance information
  • Snap a profile photo
  • Sign the HIPAA consent form with a digital signature

The information auto-populates directly into the drchrono EHR platform. On subsequent visits, patients do not have to complete duplicate forms, they need only review their information and make any necessary changes on the iPad.

That saves “time and money” says Nusimow. “Putting in insurance info and all that minutiae takes a lot of time.” With medication and allergies pre-entered, “the next time [patients] go to the doctor, they can just engage with the doctor.”

Surinder Saini, MD, a gastroenterologist in Fountain Valley, Calif. who was an early user of the app, says OnPatient “has benefited my practice in many ways.” Patients like it too, he says. They enjoy the novelty of being “given an iPad to register in the office,” and they “love to enter information” on the app.

Officials say OnPatient meets all industry security standards ensuring the privacy and safety of patient data.

See full Article (HealthcareITNews): Here

 

 

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , , , ,

Autodesk brings AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD WS to Apple’s Mac App Store

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Autodesk, the design-software specialist that abandoned Apple’s computers for years and then returned to the fold, is taking another unusual step for a maker of high-end business programs–adopting the Mac App Store.

The San Rafael, Calif., company on Tuesday is holding an event to announce new versions of its widely used AutoCAD software that support the new Mac OS X Lion operating system, including two that will be available exclusively from the Apple-run store. An $899.99 version called AutoCAD LT 2012 for Mac, for example, is set to be available for download Tuesday  from Apple.

Among other things, the arrangement puts Autodesk in a position of splitting revenue from its software with a computer maker–an arrangement that is routine with iPhone and iPad apps but is unusual in the PC business. Autodesk is not discussing how much Apple will get, but it ordinarily receives 30% on content sales through its app store.

“They are acting an agent for us,” says Amar Hanspal, Autodesk’s senior vice president for platform solutions and emerging business. “They are commercially rewarded for doing that.”

Autodesk has no immediate plans to use the store to distribute the updated full version of its flagship product, which is called AutoCAD 2012 for Mac and retains a hefty list price–$3,995. “There is a price level you cannot exceed” at the online store, Hanspal says.

Sharing revenues with distributors is not a new concept for Autodesk. The company leans heavily on specialized resellers, for example, for distributing AutoCAD to specialized customers such as architectural and engineering firms.

Nor is Apple’s app store foreign territory for Autodesk. The company has been using it to distribute products such as its Sketchbook Pro for iPad, a popular drawing program that is priced at $4.99.

Autodesk’s other Mac offering through the app store is AutoCAD WS for Mac, a simpler free program that is designed to enable users to view and collaborate using AutoCAD files.  That progam is expected to be available for download on Aug. 19.

The company, which stopped distributing AutoCAD for the Mac from 1994 until last fall, responded to broadening interest by businesses in using devices besides PCs running Microsoft Windows, Hanspal says. It’s a trend that Apple likes, not surprisingly.

See full Article (WallStreetJounal): Here

 

 

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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