Healthcare
Vernon Huang, M.D.
Pen Computing Magazine, Issue #10 May/June
1996
Pens at the HIMSS show
I recall a conversation I had with the VP for research of a large hospital
information system provider about two years ago. He liked the Newton form
factor and development environment but said that there were a few things
missing. He wanted TCP/IP to communicate with an existing back end system
and he said that backlighting was a requirement if it were to be used in
a hospital environment. I had to agree with him on both points. It's nice
that LocalTalk is built in, but in the real world only a fraction of machines
used in health care are Macs. I also remember plenty of nights trying to
work in a darkened ward or patient's room.
I guess the folks in the Newton Systems Group at Apple heard this story
enough because they addressed these concerns in the MessagePad 130. It's
still the same handy form factor that will fit in a lab coat pocket but
now it has backlighting on demand as well as double the amount of heap memory
(the type of memory that users can't see but programs need to use). Apple
has also announced that they will ship a TCP/IP stack for Newton by this
summer and there is speculation on the internet newsgroups that the extra
heap memory in the MP130 will make things run smoother for the IP stack.
No word from Apple yet but I'm sure that they are doing their best to make
the IP stack work on version 2.0 MessagePad 120s as well.
Newton Group emphasizes health care
While Apple was busy laying off people, reorganizing, and naming a new CEO
a few months ago, the Forum for Hand-Held Computing in Healthcare was being
organized. It's being held May 8th - 10th in San Francisco and Pen Computing
Magazine is one of the sponsors. I guess that the Newton Group was busy
wondering what was going to happen to Apple at the time, so they didn't
become a corporate sponsor. The very smart thing they are doing, though,
is having their own event to coincide with the conference. I spoke recently
with some sources in the Newton group and it looks like there is going to
be more emphasis than ever before on health care. Things looked a little
shaky before when Jane Curley-Pimental, the vertical market manager for
health care was promoted out of that area but things are looking good. Apple
always had identified health care as one if its "key verticals"
but now it seems like even greater emphasis is on the way. Let's hope that
it's genuine resources in the form of staffing and partnering/co-marketing
programs and not just lip service.
Newton at HIMMS (with Darwin Liao, M.D., M.P.H.)
As further evidence of the devotion of the Newton Systems Group to health
care is the presence that they had at HIMSS. HIMSS (Health Information Management
Systems Society) is the premiere trade show for Health Administrators, Hospital
Information Systems groups, and clinicians wanting to learn about the newest
trends in health informatics and health information systems. All the major
health information systems vendors, IDX, HBOC, PHAMIS, SMS, MediTech, as
well as many computer vendors, Apple, Microsoft, Dell, etc. were present.
Newton sofware developers present included 3S DataCom, Advanced Reference
Technologies, Education Research Labs, First Databank, Health Care Communications,
PHAMIS/Point of Care Systems, Physix, Sinicure, and StaMar.
The Newton group had ten stations set up demoing third party software as
well as a mini-theatre presentation. Many IS folks were surprised to see
companies such as Physix and Point of Care demoing Newton PDAs communicating
wirelessly to back end systems running Windows NT. It seems that the perception
that Newton is a Macintosh centric device still needs to be corrected.
The Apple booth, with both Mac and Newton solutions, received steady traffic
with the majority of the interest in the Newton based medical solutions.
Visitors to the booth walked away with copies of the Newton Solutions Guide
and Apple MessagePad Solutions for Health Care Professionals (email your
real mailing address to newton.med@ applelink.apple.com for a copy). There
seemed to be a high level of excitement for many attendees, some of which
were seeing Newton 2.0 for the first time. The MessagePad received consistent
praise on its new operating system, form factor, communications capabilities,
and its ability to tie in to existing back-end systems. This was a universal
consensus among administrators, nurses, and physicians alike.
Overall the booth was a success. Although HIMSS represents a small portion
of the health care community at large, Newton technology is definitely a
viable and affordable solution for health care, as exhibited by the level
of interest and comments around the Apple booth. The ability to tie into
systems such as IDX and PHAMIS is a great leap forward. Hopefully other
major IS vendors will explore Newton technology for point-of-care systems.
Expect to see many more developers of Newton solutions for health care in
the near future. Apple's major challenge in health care is marketing and
how to educate to the health care community at large about benefits of integrating
Newton technology. The MessagePad and other Newton devices have an explosive
potential and benefit to health care workers in this day of managed care.
There's been a lot of hype about the future of PDAs and their impact on
society. Lets hope that the health care industry recognizes the role and
importance of PDAs in medicine and that they are working on solutions today
rather than taking a wait and see attitude.
Vernon W. Huang, M.D. is a Partner and Medical Director of Tactile Systems,
Inc. He consults on the uses of PDAs in medicine and lives in the Seattle
area. Dr. Huang can be reached at vernon@tactile.com.