How tablet computing will revolutionize healthcare

About the Author

Richard Meyer is a passionate Internet DTC marketer with over 15 years of progressive experience in consumer marketing who`s worked on top pharmaceutical brands like Cialis, Prozac and Sarafem, as well as two years with Medtronic Diabetes. He is currently consulting for his own company, Online Strategic Solutions, and writes a DTC column for PM 360 magazine and blogs for Eye for Pharma in addition to his own blog, World of DTC Marketing.

You arrive at your physicians office for an appointment because you are concerned about pain you have been having in your knee. Here is what your visit might look like with tablet computing:

1. As you arrive at the office you are handed a tablet to fill out the necessary forms. The data is instantly entered into the database at the physicians office. The device also asks you if you would be interested in learning about any health items by checking categories (i.e. mens health, women’s health, joint health)

2. The nurse takes you back into your treatment room where blood pressure and temperature are taken and transmitted to the tablet automatically along with date and time of the reading.

3. Your physician enters the room with the tablet PC and begins his examination of your knee. He informs you that it could be arthritis or a sprain and shows you on his tablet the inner workings of a knee along with some short images of an arthritic knee or sprained knee. He records his diagnosis and in this case prescribes Celebrex and tells the patient to come back in one week. He records the data on the tablet which correlates the data and automatically sends the necessary forms directly to the insurance provider and local pharmacy.

4. When you arrive home, after picking up your Rx, there is an eMail from your physician with a reminder to make a follow up appointment as well as some information on Celebrex (i.e. how to take it, when to take it). Enclosed are also some exercises to strengthen your knee as well as warning signs to look for. Links are provided for local support groups.

5. After a couple of days the physician sends you another eMail asking how you’re doing with a reminder to follow up.

6. You go back in a week because although your knee is feeling better it’s still not 100%. Your doctor recommends an MRI and the paperwork is sent to your insurer requesting coverage. As you have the MRI the image is sent via eMail to a radiologist who then diagnoses your condition and electronically sends the image and diagnosis to your PCP who contacts you and informs you that you have a mild case of arthritis. He sends along some information on arthritis and recommendation on how to minimize the impact of the disease.

7. Your Rx from Celebrex is electronically renewed and you get patient education information directly from your doctor on Celebrex. You have the option to save the information to a number of health services or on your PC.

Pretty neat ha? I haven’t even touched the HCP learning opportunities yet. Sure this could be a way out because bandwidth is getting pretty damn tight but time to start thinking about it NOW.