Victorian Premier’s election promise could see Apple iPads to every public hospital doctor

“One of the world’s largest e-health vendors, Australia-based iSoft, has welcomed an election policy that could see iPads rolled out to every doctor in Victoria’s public hospitals, flagging strong organic adoption of the Apple tablets and noting their potential to impact positively on long-term hospital problems such as scheduling across the health ecosystem,” Renai LeMay reports for ZDNet Australia.

“The election promise was made last week by Victorian Premier John Brumby as part of Labor’s wide-ranging state health policy released ahead of the upcoming Victorian election,” LeMay reports. “The Coalition has made a similar promise, but without specifically mentioning the iPad as a targeted device. Analyst firm Gartner has questioned whether Victoria’s Labor Party had properly analysed what management tools and supporting infrastructure it will need if it wins the election and is required to deliver on the promise.”

LeMay reports, “iSoft director of markets and solutions Byron Phillips said it was ‘hard to deny’ the organic uptake of the iPad by clinicians over the past six months since the tablet was released in Australia, describing adoption of the device by many sectors and the consumer market in general as ‘immense.’ Product tracking firm GfK Australia recently released new research purporting to show that around 188,000 tablet devices had been sold in Australia over the past six months, with almost all of those sales being iPads.”

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