As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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“What’d I miss?” – Week of August 15, 2010
Do you think this is the future of mobile computing, or the past?
I came across this post at Mobile Health Computing, one of the many blogs of Dr. Joseph Kim.
Is this the future of mobile computing?
Here’s a great photo of an Apple iPad on a stand with a keyboard on the desk. Is this the future of mobile computing? Will we all end up using thin slate tablet computers that are held up on stands? While we’re sitting on a desk, we may use the keyboard. When it’s time to go, we grab the slate and we run off. No keyboard needed since we’re probably going to be computing on-the-go.
The image from Dr. Kim’s post reminded me a similar setup I’ve seen in a pharmacy before. The image to the right is a J3400 tablet PC attached to the Motion FlexDock. The FlexDock offers support for an external monitor, RJ45 nectwork connectivity and multiple USB ports for keyboard, mouse and printer. In addition the FlexDock includes a charging bay with room for an additional battery.
Would it surprise you to learn that the setup to the right was introduced more than a year ago (early 2009), and that the J3400 is an “older” model tablet PC that was recently replaced by the J3500? I find that interesting.
Either setup would be great.
Toughbooks aren’t just cool, they save money too
I’ve mentioned Panasonic Toughbooks on this website before. I’m a real fan of the Toughbook C1 tablet PC with its multi-touch digitizer, 10 hour battery life, spill-resistant keyboard and tough magnesium alloy exterior. It’s definitely on my short list of most desired devices.
It turns out that Toughbooks are more than just cool technology, they may actually save healthcare a little money when used the right way. NHS Kirkless, a primary care trust in the UK estimates that they are saving more than $900,000 per year by deploying 600 Toughbooks to their care providers in the field.
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Update: Siemens Innovations 2010 Presentation
Today was the big day. I gave my presentation at about 11:00 am and it cleared the room. There were about 100 attendees for the CPOE presentation just prior to mine and about 90 of those people got up and left when it came time for me to do my thing. I guess mobile pharmacy just isn’t interesting to most people.
Anyway, the presentation is below. There is an embedded video near the end that didn’t pull into SlideShare. It’s about a 30 second look at how we use Citrix on the iPad to access various clinical applications. I attempted to upload in to YouTube, but kept getting an error. I’ll try again later. If you want to see the elongated version of the videos simply go to YouTube and type in “Kaweah Delata iPad“, or something similar, and several options will pop up.
Slow progress in pharmacy automation and stale technology creates ho-hum interest
Recently I’ve been in bit of a blogging slump. The world of technology suddenly appears a little less exciting. In fact, I find myself thinking of current technology as boring. I read lots of blog posts and articles that refer to new technologies as “revolutionary”, but I haven’t seen much revolutionary technology lately. In fact, most of the new technology is simply an iteration of the same theme; or worse, recycling of an old theme.
Consumer technology is clearly ahead of healthcare with the exception of scanning devices like MRIs, which are pretty cool when you stop to think about what they do. However, some of the most recently vaunted consumer technologies are devices aimed at information consumption like the iPad or devices designed to access data and social media while on the go, i.e. the new crop of smartphones. It’s not really new technology per se, but rather a new application of already available technology.
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Using the concept of the iPad to further pharmacy education
A few weeks ago I installed the Blausen Human Atlas HD application on my iPad. The application features some pretty incredible 3D images and video. The videos provide an animated narrative on a host of medical conditions and treatments. In addition the Blausen application offers a cool 3D rendering of the human body and a glossary of terms. The images contained in this blog really don’t do it justice, as the iPad’s screen does a very nice job of displaying images like these.
Thinix Touch UI for tablet PCs
I’ve seen Thinix Touch before, but have renewed interest in the product as I continue to explore new uses for various tablets in my possession. The application has been available on touchscreen computers like the HP TouchSmart series for a while. There’s even a Thinix products page on the company website that lists several devices that are available with the Touch UI.
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“What’d I miss?” – Week of July 4, 2010
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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Top blog posts and searches from last week (27)
I always find it interesting to see what brings people to my website and what they decided to read once they get here.
Most read posts over the past 7 days:
- An almost disastrous bar-coding mishap
- Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Post from before I started putting the name of the cool technology in the blog title. This particular post was from September 10, 2009 and covered the capsule machine.
- Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Another post from before I started putting the name of the cool technology in the blog title. This particular post was from June 18, 2009 and covered Alaris Smartpumps.
- Best iPhone / iPod Touch Applications for Pharmacists
- Quick Hit – Mobile devices in our pharmacy – This post elicited a couple of interesting comments.
- Curriculum Vitae
- “What’d I miss?” – Week of June 27
- Cool Technology for Pharmacy –NDC Translator
- About -People checking up on me.
- Motion J3500 gets a wicked update – People are still interested in tablet PCs, even with that other device grabbing all the press.
Top searchterm phrases used over the past 7 days:
“What’d I miss?” – Week of June 27
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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