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http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/25/entelligence-happy-10th-birthday-pocket-pc/#comments
Engadget has a nice post marking the 10th anniversary of the Pocket PC in 2000 with the introduction of four models: the Casio EM500, the HP Jornada 545 & 548, the Symbol Technologies PPT2700, and the Compaq iPAQ. None of these included a phone - they were PDAs. Among the most enthusiastic users of these platforms were physicians. The platform was squarely targeted at the dominant platform of the day - Palm OS.
What followed was almost a decade of head-to-head debate among medical users about which platform would eventually be the mobile platform of choice in the clinical space. Palm OS had about five years of established use among physicians but Pocket PC was more powerful, was Windows-connected, and had a nifty but bulky compact-flash sled to add on. Those of us who took sides in this epic debate were, apparently, ultimately dead wrong. Three years after the iPhone OS was launched, both Pocket PC and Palm OS platforms are both just about officially dead. While Palm and Microsoft both have plans for a come-back, both have had to do a complete re-launch are the significant underdogs this time around being 2-3 years behind.
To me, the lesson in this story is that the driving force behind cutting-edge clinical mobile hardware is the preference of the every-day consumer. This is because most of us acquire these devices with our own funds and do so with consumer applications in mind as well as clinical ones. From PCs, to notebooks, to PDAs, to smartphones, and, now, tablets, no hardware can really succeed in the medical space without first being adopted by the consumer. This is because despite all the claims of increased efficiency and ROI, this hardware is largely expense and does not increase revenue in our industry. It doesn't really pay for itself much less increase profits. So, there isn't much of a business case for doing anything other than waiting for cheaper consumer technology or, better yet, letting the clinicians buy their own devices. This is why manufacturing companies, retail establishments, restaurants, and your UPS driver usually have better connected technology than we do in health care.
If you are going to wait for your IT department to adopt a particular device or platform for your clinical use then you are going to end up with a hopelessly outdated, locked-down device that probably isn't worth carrying around outside of your workplace. Even now there are brand new state-of-the art E-prescribing systems being deployed that run on the ... Pocket PC platform!
Engadget has a nice post marking the 10th anniversary of the Pocket PC in 2000 with the introduction of four models: the Casio EM500, the HP Jornada 545 & 548, the Symbol Technologies PPT2700, and the Compaq iPAQ. None of these included a phone - they were PDAs. Among the most enthusiastic users of these platforms were physicians. The platform was squarely targeted at the dominant platform of the day - Palm OS.
What followed was almost a decade of head-to-head debate among medical users about which platform would eventually be the mobile platform of choice in the clinical space. Palm OS had about five years of established use among physicians but Pocket PC was more powerful, was Windows-connected, and had a nifty but bulky compact-flash sled to add on. Those of us who took sides in this epic debate were, apparently, ultimately dead wrong. Three years after the iPhone OS was launched, both Pocket PC and Palm OS platforms are both just about officially dead. While Palm and Microsoft both have plans for a come-back, both have had to do a complete re-launch are the significant underdogs this time around being 2-3 years behind.
To me, the lesson in this story is that the driving force behind cutting-edge clinical mobile hardware is the preference of the every-day consumer. This is because most of us acquire these devices with our own funds and do so with consumer applications in mind as well as clinical ones. From PCs, to notebooks, to PDAs, to smartphones, and, now, tablets, no hardware can really succeed in the medical space without first being adopted by the consumer. This is because despite all the claims of increased efficiency and ROI, this hardware is largely expense and does not increase revenue in our industry. It doesn't really pay for itself much less increase profits. So, there isn't much of a business case for doing anything other than waiting for cheaper consumer technology or, better yet, letting the clinicians buy their own devices. This is why manufacturing companies, retail establishments, restaurants, and your UPS driver usually have better connected technology than we do in health care.
If you are going to wait for your IT department to adopt a particular device or platform for your clinical use then you are going to end up with a hopelessly outdated, locked-down device that probably isn't worth carrying around outside of your workplace. Even now there are brand new state-of-the art E-prescribing systems being deployed that run on the ... Pocket PC platform!
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