Jerry Fahrni

Tag: touchscreen

  • Touchscreen technology still rocks

    Earlier today I created a blog post about touchscreen technology for another website. While that piece was informative, it didn’t contain some of the cool stuff I found during my research.
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  • First Impressions – Lenovo T410s Laptop

    There’s a new Lenovo T410s laptop in the house. It’s technically not mine because it has a giant company asset tag on it, but it’s mine for the duration of my employment and it’s one incredible machine.

    The configuration is as follows:

    • Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
    • Intel Core i5-M560 Processor
    • 160GB Intel Solid State Drive
    • 8GB RAM
    • 14.1-inch WXGA touchscreen…yes, that’s right, it is a touchscreen
    • 6 Cell Li-ion battery
    • 3-cell ultrabay battery that fits in the DVD slot when I need additional battery
    • And all the typical stuff that goes with most laptops, i.e. camera, Bluetooth, wireless (no 3G), etc

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  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of November 5th

    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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  • Fujitsu playing healthcare angle with Windows 7 touch features

    eWeek: “Health care is a particular market that can benefit from the combination of touch- and pen- input combined with multitouch, and Moore offered the example of a physician meeting with a patient: viewing the patient’s records vertically, turning the tablet PC horizontally to view an X-ray, and quickly pinching or expanding his or her fingers to take a closer look at the image. “There’s a lot of intuitiveness here,” said Moore, and with built-in connectivity, “There’s no more, ‘Can you get me that chart?’ By the time the patient leaves the office, the prescription is at the pharmacist.’” – I agree that Windows 7 has potential to make a big impact on healthcare for the exact reasons mentioned above. Touch is good, people.

    As I said in a previous post: “Touchscreens are becoming more and more popular, especially with the increased use of smartphones, UMPCs, and MIDs. Touchscreen navigation on these smaller devices is a must if you hope to make them useful to the user. While a touchscreen isn’t a necessity on larger device yet, it is a welcome luxury. Like most great technological advances, it will take quite some time for touchscreens to filter down into pharmacy, but I think it’ll eventually get here. After all you don’t have to use the touchscreen for navigation, but it sure would be a nice option to have. Imagine entering an order on a CPOE system with nothing more than the tip of your finger. If properly designed, the physician wouldn’t have to type anything. Simply tap a pre-built link with the drug, dose, route and frequency desired and hit “send’. “

  • What tablet PC information did I miss? [Week of October 4th]

    I’m constantly trolling the internet for information on tablet PCs. What can I say, I’m addicted. And believe me, there’s was no shortage of stuff to read this week. Reports of the death of the tablet PC have been greatly exaggerated. I was going to add these thoughts to the “What’d I miss” post from yesterday, but it was just too much information. Anyway, here’s some tablet PC stuff I found interesting this week.
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  • To touch or not touch….a computer screen

    GottaBeMobile: “I am firmly of the belief that touch and multitouch make no real, practical sense on the desktop monitor. As we’ve stated on GBM before, the main problem for touch interfaces on the desktop is “gorilla arm”, that heavy, painful feeling you get in your arm after having it outstretched for an extended period, trying to touch a monitor 20-24 inches away from your body. Sure there are times when touch on the desktop monitor would be handy to just scratch out a quickie OneNote drawing, but for 99% of the time, for 99% of the people, touch on the desktop monitor space just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense even if it came for free. Now on the smaller form factors, Apple has really done the space a lot of service. Users and fanboys alike have been shown how touch and multitouch work on an iPhone. Apple’s advertising for the touch features of iPhone are direct, to the point, and show the audience what is going on without a lot of flash or distraction. Much like the HP ads for their newer IQ-series TouchSmart kitchen PC, the advertising is creative and effective.” – While I agree in theory to what Mr. Locke is saying, there are times when a touch screen is simply the best way to go. Desktop computers may not be the right application for such devices, but a desk surface may be the perfect area for a touch screen. We have several monitors scattered throughout our pharmacy that I would love to see as touch screens. For some reason I feel compelled to touch a computer monitor when I’m standing instead of seated in front of it. Touch screens also make excellent tools for surfing the internet while kicking back on the couch watching football. Now there’s a practical use for touch screen technology.

  • What do you think of touchscreen technology for healthcare?

    Xavier Lanier over at GottaBeMobile.com asks the question “would [users] pay extra to have touch capabilities on their notebooks? Keep in mind, we’re not talking slates, convertibles, UMPC, netbook or MID form factors here- just plain old 12″ to 17″ clamshell notebooks.” It’s no secret that I am a big fan of touchscreen technology, but I don’t think I would be willing to pay extra for a touchscreen on a notebook. Tapping the screen on a notebook seems like it would be a little awkward. However, a touchscreen on a convertible notebook would be a completely different story. I would be willing to shell out a little extra cash for that combination.
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  • Cool Technology for Pharmacy

    There were several vendors strutting their stuff at Siemens Innovations this week in Philadelphia. Here are a couple of products I thought were pretty cool.

    imprivata

    Imprivata OneSign Platform:”Imprivata helps organizations secure employee, contractor and temporary hire access to desktops, networks, applications, and transactions – – enforcing who gets access; providing visibility into what was accessed; and ultimately, terminating all of a user’s network and application access, instantly. Imprivata OneSign® is an identity and access management platform that strengthens user authentication to networks; streamlines application access; and simplifies the process of compliance reporting–all delivered through a secure, self-contained appliance that requires zero modifications to existing IT infrastructure, and is centrally managed from a single administrative console. “ – The Imprivata OneSign Platform offers single sign-on to all enterprise applications. This is something I’ve been interested in as pharmacists have to log into no less than five different systems to do their job; at our facility anyway. It makes sense to me to use information from a single location to create single sign-on access for employees. The OneSign Platform is pretty flexible, allowing users to choose from password validation, proximity cards, RFID, biometric scan, and flash drives among other options for user authentication.

    toughbook_t8Toughbook T8: “Lightweight, yet Durable – Weighing in at 3.3 lbs., the Toughbook® T8 business-rugged laptop combines light weight and durability, with a built-in a magnesium alloy case, sanitizable rubber hand strap, embedded wireless, and added security and remote management with Intel® Centrino® 2 with vProâ„¢ technology. Built with legendary Toughbook reliability and unparalleled portability, the drop- and spill-resistant Toughbook T8 keeps up with today’s busy mobile professionals.” – I had an opportunity to play with this tough little dude and I have to say I was impressed. The T8 is light enough to hold securely in one hand via the strap located on the underside. It’s not a full blown tablet PC, but does offer a nice touchscreen interface, which allows you to move around the screen with only your finger. And it’s tough. The T8 is designed to survive a fall of 2.5-3 feet. The only thing missing, in my opinion, was a swivel screen.