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Comment by logjam | Hacker News Reader

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logjam·

We've tried iPads in our practice for EHR, including a trial of Dr Chrono. It is unusable because:

- it takes too long to enter notes on a tablet. A "template" system is way too inflexible.

- the dictation feature didn't work.

- nobody has ever been able to even begin to convince us that our patients' data was secure.

Laptops work MUCH better. We do use tablets for patient education purposes, for which they are much better suited.

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I worked on PACS and incidentally integrating with EHRs in the past -- I'd be very interested in talking with you about exactly what security concerns you have with this kind of solution and figuring out how a system could satisfy them.

I think the dictation issues are non core; either apple fixes it in iOS 5 or drchrono could integrate with a third party transcription provider.

The template and macro thing is definitely at the core to a good ehr

If you're already using laptops in your practice, you might take a look at ElationEMR. I got a chance to try their browser-based app a few months ago and was impressed with how well they handle data entry.

For all that I like my iPad, typing is still something of a sore point.

Consider the iPad all by itself doesn't do EHR, what software packages did you try out before bailing?

Aren't there any packages that check all the regulatory and usability requirements for usage in a hospital/clinic?

I haven't tried it, but maybe with iOS 5, which is rumored to offer markedly improved speech to text capabilities, it might make a difference. I agree that templates don't work great.

What is the security concern?

>nobody has ever been able to even begin to convince us that our patients' data was secure.

Just use Citrix then instead of some random third party application?

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