Dive Brief:
- Hospital-based residents don't see the iPad as a valuable clinical rounding or educational tool, according to a study published in this month's Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine.
- To research the utility of iPads for residents, researchers gave 102 medical and surgical residents at RIverside Methodist Hospital in Ohio a 16 GB iPad 2 with wireless Internet capabilities during the 2011-2012 academic year.
- According to a survey conducted at the end of the academic year, 14.7% of residents reported using the tablet on rounds, and 7.8% said that the iPad helped them document care more efficiently.
Dive Insight:
These results may seem counterintuitive to those who assume younger doctors are technology-obsessed, but the truth is, it's not that surprising, since data entry on an iPad is far more cumbersome than laptop or desktop use That being said, medical residents still value the iPad highly for other activities, with 41.7% approving of its use as an educational tool, 38.9% accessing the tablet as a means of guiding evidence-based care, and 58.3% using the iPad to make recommendations to a colleague. Now, EMR developers need to create iPad friendly interfaces before residents can use them effectively for caregiving -- and then, only then, will you see iPads in heavy use for clinical rounding.