“When Apple’s iPad first appeared medical professionals worldwide quickly adopted it to replace bulky case notes and poor PM systems,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “Now there’s a new trend of doctors migrating to Macs in their practice, with help from the newly-updated MacPractice practice management software for Macs, iPads and iPhones.”
“4,000 medical practices already use Apple technologies at their surgeries, mostly running MacPractice practice management and clinical software for Macs, iPads and iPhones which provides them with the tools they need to run their practice,” Evans writes. “The software was updated today to meet the stringent regulatory demands of US medical, including secure HIPAA-compliant communications and faxing tools, integrated online patient services and more.”
“Dr. Darryl Roundy observes: ‘Five years ago [before deploying Macs in his practice] everything was disjointed, we had MRIS in one place, X-rays in another – MacPractise combines them all,'” Evans writes. “Reliability is key, Roundy says: ‘In the five years I’ve had Macs in the office I’ve never had to rebuild a system, I’ve never come across a virus in the wild… I look at colleagues using PCs and they are spending thousands just making their PCs work properly.’ You’ll find similar user recommendations from across the growing US Mac using medical community.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Your health is too important to risk on doctors with crappy Windows PCs.
Getting those cheap sons of bitches to pay for it is the problem. Doctors HATE tech. Obviously a generalization but these guys typically dot want macs. They want the cheapest PC you can find, and when you tell them your rate they skoff. But they will spend 50,000 to fly 9000 miles to shoot a stupid lion that’s minding its own business, in the side with an arrow and wait a day or 2 for it to bleed to death.
Yes. Did you ever notice that the staff at the doctor’s office all have what look to be about 12″ monitors on their PCs? Who can work with those tiny displays? The doctors appear to be too cheap to care.
They don’t care. And… They often don’t have the internet connected in their offices because they don’t want the clerical staff goofing around on the web.
Does anyone know why those 12 in screens are nearly square? Well, to accomodate zillions of toolbars, that’s why!
Every once in a while you run into a Mac loving doctor but even they will cut costs every corner. “my nephew knows about computers, he’s going to wire the network and set up the machines for security.”
What does your nephew do? He’s in 8th grade.
Doctors are hilarious. My associate says they just don’t believe anyone is as important, smart, or busy as they are.
Mac Doc here…
I wrote my own office software using FileMaker Pro in 1997. My office utilizes all electronic records in a simple, robust, and reliable Mac format.
Happy to not depend on over priced EHR overlords. 😀
Now you walk into their office and say something hurts… $10,000 just to consider you. Isn’t be telling the truth, and you have no say in it because YOU aren’t the customer, the insurance company is.
If only the NHS in the UK were so forward-thinking. A very recent report showed 75,000 PCs in the Welsh NHS were still running XP, FFS!
A cursory examination of my local hospitals (I take my FIL to his hospital appointments) shows and almost equal mix of Win 7 and XP, with a slight bias towards 7.
Oh dear!
=:~)
I swear that there is nothing or no body that will not be derided and insulted on this forum. I come here every day and read how terrible and stupid everyone else is. If doctors aren’t about the brightest people on earth, just who is? The unhappy who come here to demean all things? Really.
The Windows/Android version is called MalPractice….
My doctor’s medical office has been running iMacs for years. They use a program called MacMedical to keep track of stuff. I think it is a Canada only piece of software, but am not sure.
Doctors did not spend their time and money in school to learn about computers; they learned about how to cure people. They hire, usually outsource, others to do it. Like a lot of other industries they see what larger companies are doing and follow suit. They don’t understand that hospitals have a department that keeps all of their computers up and running.Windows was originally designed to be a mass deployed network and having people constantly maintaining it was expected. Same thing happened when the internet came into the home and people got a PC because they used one at work. They believe the Mac is expensive. The truth is Mac was designed to be use in small scale systems and not require a lot of upkeep. Small businesses and homes are better suited for Macs. Unfortunately most people usually listen to their friend who is a “techie” and asks them what they would buy. What they don’t understand is usually they are: people who work on computers and know how to keep them up; gamers who like to build, and rebuild their own system; or people who need an ego boost by making fun of people who can’t do what they do. The techies don’t understand the real needs of small businesses.
Don’t make fun of Dr.’s who are stuck with PCs because of bad advice. Help them to understand why Macs are better for a small business. Also don’t use a Dr. who thinks you should understand Latin.
I first setup my father with a Mac medical records and billing software 25 years ago.
Part of the reason the doctors have such crap hardware is the insane cost of medical software.
My wife’s practice management software cost her 50K and an additional yearly upgrade fee that can run anywhere from 1 to 3 K. It’s no wonder the hardware gets short shrift. Now take in to account the add-ons for digital x-ray systems, insurance and accounting modules, etc. do you think they are going to spend $1500-$2000 per workstation?
We use MacPractice in the Dental office I contract to manage. It has been rock solid for almost 12 years now. We use it for everything except accounts payable. It manages our digital radiology as well, handling the taking of everything except digital 3D CT scans. . . but can run the CBCT scanner that does those for panelipse X-rays as well. That machine is controlled by a MacPro. Our other radiology equipment is run by MacBook Airs. . . We use a Mac Mini Server to provide for 20 iMacs and Macbook Airs used as workstations. Cost for the software is nowhere near what you cite.
Nor is it such a cost per workstation. . . There are yearly support costs of course, and a subscription for electronic billing to the insurance companies is now required.
Hers isn’t a Mac office, sadly. She uses Orthotrac for her orthodontic office. The cost for the software for her two offices 12 years ago with all the modules she needed was 50k. She has since added modules (like the one for digital x-rays) that have added costs over time.
I tried to talk her in to MacPractice when she was looking but at the time it didn’t really suit an ortho
office.