How useful are ipads 3rd year?

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TheSlyme

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Did anyone find an ipad to be much more useful compared to an iphone and a clipboard 3rd year?
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You would look like a douche walking around with an iPad on wards, not to mention the possible HIPAA violations from storing any patient information on them.
 
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Yea, I wouldn't recommend an Ipad to keep with you at all times while on the wards. Would just look weird and probably be a pain to carry.

Now, if it was something to keep in a bag/locker to use on down time then an IPad loaded with PDF books might not be a bad option. Was with a radiology resident who did just that and seemed pretty handy. I just wouldn't want to carry it around all day.
 
Don't listen to these guys. Please bring your iPad so we can all have a good laugh :laugh:
 
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Haha, thanks for the advice everyone. I will consider showing up to my first rotation with a portable EKG machine strapped to my back just for medlover.
 
TheSlyme said:
Haha, thanks for the advice everyone. I will consider showing up to my first rotation with a portable EKG machine strapped to my back just for medlover.
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having an ipad on which to read books would be sweet. other than that there's no real use for it in medical school. During residency if you were able to get EMR access on it that'd be a big help, they wouldn't do that for a student though.
 
turkeyjerky said:
having an ipad on which to read books would be sweet. other than that there's no real use for it in medical school. During residency if you were able to get EMR access on it that'd be a big help, they wouldn't do that for a student though.
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You seriously don't have access to the EMR where you rotate on outside computers?

I see people using ipads fairly frequently. They seemed to be the most helpful during rounds when they were able to check on something lab or image related that may not have been available when people wrote their notes
 
I agree that carrying an ipad is a little excessive, but one of my attendings has started doing just that since the hospital allowed access into the EMR system.
 
On second thought, definitely get one.

jamboxx.jpg


flava-flav-ipad-cjr.jpg
 
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Who said you need to carry your iPad everywhere with you. I use mine primarily at home to read all my books on w/ iannotate. I've saved about $350 in books this year alone which almost covers my cost (with more books to come).

And for what it's worth I can access my hospitals EMR anywhere right from my iPad and imaging looks great on it.


The other thing I like are the pretest apps which are identical to the books except you can bookmark wrong answers and redo wrong answers only again a la UW.

Owning a convenient piece of equipment doesn't make you a douche. Using it in inappropriate situations may not look good though.
 
DrBowtie said:
Too big for the coat pockets so the likelihood of losing it when you set it down to perform a physical exam is high.
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I've seen students/residents here sew a pocket inside their coats to hold the ipad. or buy an old military map case from an army/navy store for a few bucks, it holds the ipad perfectly. besides reading PDF books, looking up wikipedia, storing interesting cases, accessing hospital records, presentations, emails.....yeah I can't see why you wouldn't have one
 
FrickenhugeMD said:
You seriously don't have access to the EMR where you rotate on outside computers?

I see people using ipads fairly frequently. They seemed to be the most helpful during rounds when they were able to check on something lab or image related that may not have been available when people wrote their notes
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The hospitals I work out of don't have wireless that's fast enough to allow capability to load remote web-based EMR OR they don't allow remote EMR access at all for students.
 
Do you ever have downtime on rotations?
Do you ever deuce out on rotations?

/end thread
 
Jolie South said:
The hospitals I work out of don't have wireless that's fast enough to allow capability to load remote web-based EMR OR they don't allow remote EMR access at all for students.
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I am also interested in knowing which EMR system that they are able to run on the iPad.

A nearby OB/gyn practice switched to EMR and initially tried to run it on iPads. They said that the iPad just wasn't powerful enough to run their office EMR, but perhaps that had more capabilities (and required more memory) than a hospital EMR? :confused:
 
It should run just about any "web-based" EMR that's capable of being accessed on any other standard browser.... unless it uses Flash for some reason.

The other thing is I've some systems that are web based in that you login via a browser but it then either spawns a self contained application that is the actual EMR or does a remote network type connection (like citrix, RDP, etc...) in those cases it wouldn't work on an ipad.

Was in an outpatient FP office that was trying out a strictly web based EMR and they had several ipads throughout the office for everyone to use. I think it lasted a few months before they scraped it. Just too cumbersome if you had to type anything of length, and at the time at least, it couldn't print so still had to get on a pc to get the exported document to send to consultants.
 
PokerDoc said:
Who said you need to carry your iPad everywhere with you. ...
Owning a convenient piece of equipment doesn't make you a douche. Using it in inappropriate situations may not look good though.
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Um, the point was specifically about using the ipad DURING THE THIRD YEAR OF MEDICAL SCHOOL. In other words, on the wards. Not owning it and using it at home. It may be a convenient piece of equipment during eg the first two years or the elective heavy fourth year, when having it as a laptop is helpful. The majority of the third year you will be on the wards, walking around, doing rounds, standing in the OR, working in clinic, gowning up and going into contact precaution rooms where you really won't want anything in your hands. You will often not have safe places to stow things - lots of us have had relatively inexpensive things (eg stethoscopes, nice pens) swiped while we were in rooms with patients. Thus during 3rd year, if it doesn't fit in your pocket, you really do not want it with you. So owning it at home won't make you a douche. But owning and bringing it along it for your role on the wards during 3rd year kind of could.

Same goes for residency. Intern year -- definitely don't want one. But in some of the advanced specialties in the years thereafter, might be cool way to use up your book fund.
 
Depends on the school and the hospitals you are at.

My school gave ipads to the docs at various rotation sites and are actively trying to integrate them into the clinical curriculum. We also have to log every patient we see, what we did, and a bunch of other junk. It tends to be a bit of a nightmare on mobile devices.

I'm still not sure I'd want to carry around one more thing, but who knows. I could see it if you were tied in to the hospital system and they were pushing everyone to use some kind of technology like that.
 
Law2Doc said:
Um, the point was specifically about using the ipad DURING THE THIRD YEAR OF MEDICAL SCHOOL. In other words, on the wards. Not owning it and using it at home. It may be a convenient piece of equipment during eg the first two years or the elective heavy fourth year, when having it as a laptop is helpful. The majority of the third year you will be on the wards, walking around, doing rounds, standing in the OR, working in clinic, gowning up and going into contact precaution rooms where you really won't want anything in your hands. You will often not have safe places to stow things - lots of us have had relatively inexpensive things (eg stethoscopes, nice pens) swiped while we were in rooms with patients. Thus during 3rd year, if it doesn't fit in your pocket, you really do not want it with you. So owning it at home won't make you a douche. But owning and bringing it along it for your role on the wards during 3rd year kind of could.

Same goes for residency. Intern year -- definitely don't want one. But in some of the advanced specialties in the years thereafter, might be cool way to use up your book fund.
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I didn't realize third year didn't exist when you leave the hospital. My bad. I also fail to see the correlation between getting things lost on the wards and "douche". I'm just hesitant to call people who see things differently than I do "douches" or anything else for that matter.
 
PokerDoc said:
I didn't realize third year didn't exist when you leave the hospital. My bad. I also fail to see the correlation between getting things lost on the wards and "douche". I'm just hesitant to call people who see things differently than I do "douches" or anything else for that matter.
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If you're primarily using it at home, how much more convenient is having an iPad than actual books bought 3rd hand for like 5 bucks or borrowed from classmates? Or using a laptop to look stuff up?
 
Jolie South said:
If you're primarily using it at home, how much more convenient is having an iPad than actual books bought 3rd hand for like 5 bucks or borrowed from classmates? Or using a laptop to look stuff up?
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Again, its personal preference. I find it extremely convenient. Others may not, which is OK. On some rotations I had 2-3 books, some of which were heavy, not counting question books and to have them all on one device i found nice. If you don't that's totally okay and up to you. But I wouldn't call you a douche for disagreeing with me :)
 
PokerDoc said:
Again, its personal preference. I find it extremely convenient. Others may not, which is OK. On some rotations I had 2-3 books, some of which were heavy, not counting question books and to have them all on one device i found nice. If you don't that's totally okay and up to you. But I wouldn't call you a douche for disagreeing with me :)
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Did you buy the books through itunes or "acquire" them through other, "cheaper", means? Procrastinating my step 1 stuff and saw a kid using iannotate and UPAD or something, both of which seem pretty darn handy.
 
PokerDoc said:
Again, its personal preference. I find it extremely convenient. Others may not, which is OK. On some rotations I had 2-3 books, some of which were heavy, not counting question books and to have them all on one device i found nice. If you don't that's totally okay and up to you. But I wouldn't call you a douche for disagreeing with me :)
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I wish I had $500 to find out if it were convenient for me. :)
 
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Jolie South said:
I wish I had $500 to find out if it were convenient for me. :)
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haha yeah. I actually sold my laptop for $800 to get it, i have 0 use for a laptop after second year. The change went to my rainy day booze fund.
 
I have previously stated that I think the role for the ipad on the wards is extremely limited, and I stick to that.

That said, it is a cool toy and I just bought one for myself. I had the disposable income to justify it and I think I will get a lot of use out of it.
 
southernIM said:
I have previously stated that I think the role for the ipad on the wards is extremely limited, and I stick to that.
....
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Agreed. And since the OP asked about use for "3rd year" rather than simply in general, in med school, or as a home computer, I would again suggest that since much of your time is going to be on the wards, and the resources of most value during this year will be things you can jam into the pockets of your white coat, this is the year you will have the LEAST use for an ipad. You won't be home working on the computer much in those many rotations where you will be doing 80+ hours/week of work on the wards, and only having 4 weekend days/month. And you won't be carrying the thing with you to the hospital because at most hospitals, you won't have a place to stow it, and will lose it in an instant (along with your innocence).

Unless you opt to carry it around your neck like bling as shown above, in which case the unflattering adjectives are pretty reasonable.
 
PokerDoc said:
Again, its personal preference. I find it extremely convenient. Others may not, which is OK. On some rotations I had 2-3 books, some of which were heavy, not counting question books and to have them all on one device i found nice. If you don't that's totally okay and up to you. But I wouldn't call you a douche for disagreeing with me :)
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u carry 2-3 books to rotations?

do u have time to read inbetween pts or in hospitals?
 
Just a question, on average how many hospitals offer EMR access for the coolio apps seen on the iPad/iPhone commercials? It seems like medical applications are exploding in the App Store, and Apple is obviously trying to appeal to the medical community as all of their new commercials have included multiple medical applications.

Plus the FDA has made announcements about regulating the apps, so it may become an even more mainstream thing.
 
Where I did my OB/rotation they used fetal/contraction monitors that worked with that one iPhone app they showed in a commercial but that's about been the extent of "integration" I've seen so far.

Where I'm doing residency the EMR is accessible from a web browser so I guess you could use an iPad but like others have said I still much use for it beyond maybe you reading e-books during down time.
 
The Partners Hospitals (BWH, MGH, NWH, etc.) have access to the EHR on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, I've used it on my ipod touch on the wards to look up labs, etc. that weren't available when I previously looked them up. Also helpful when all the computers on the unit are being used. I also now have an iPad, but not sure if I will be using it outside of my office/home.
 
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