Hey, just need a little advice here. I just finished my third year of pharmacy school and I'll be starting my clinicals at various hospitals during my 4th year of school. Since I am no longer in school, would it be better for me to sell my macbook pro and get an iMac and iPad? The iPad might be useful for me during my clinicals but I already have the iPhone. So, is there anyone in the medical field that could weigh in on this? Is the iPad useful in the hospital versus the iPhone?
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Keep macbook pro or sell it and get iMac and iPad
- Thread starter Tumi 07
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WE can't really answer what's better for YOU. I know everyone says the ipad is a big iPhone but it's really not once you've had one. I rarely go on the iPhone anymore. I would think for you, to having a bigger, nicer screen it would be an advantage in your line of work.
How much money are you going to save between these two options, realistically speaking?
Get the iPad and have fun!
Get the iPad and have fun!
Since you are still a student (you are still in school no matter how you spin it cause pharmacy school involves 6 years unless you got grandfathered into a 5 year program. My mother and brother are pharmacists. , I always recommend all students to keep a full functioning laptop (it could be a net book).
So keep your MacBook pro and iPhone for now.
I am in the medical field myself. I have laptop, iMac, iPhone, iPad. The first thing to go would be iPad.
Don't get me wrong. I love my iPad. But it's a first gen device. I just happen to have a lot of disposable income to buy a new toy.
But assuming you are a student on a limited budget, keep the laptop and the iPhone for now. Now if you have extra money to pamper yourself than go ahead and buy the iPad. But don't buy one thinking it will enhance your clinical experience.
If you are in the hospital you don't want to be bringing in that can be easily stolen like an iPad. There are lots of thefts in hospitals unfortunately. You leave that iPad down and get busy or distracted it could be gone. I have had PDAs laptops stolen from locked call rooms before. Not worth it.
There's computer access everywhere in the hospital plus you have your iPhone so don't risk bringing in an iPad.
There are very few medical optimized apps for iPad since it's new.
I'm not a medical professional but for what it's worth, even back a few weeks before the initial (WiFi) iPad release, I read an article where someone had done a poll of doctors and something like 70-something percent were considering getting iPads and around 30% were already convinced they were going to be buying iPads. Mind you, this is before it was even released.
Then there was an article I saw much more recently where some hospital (California maybe?) was going to be buying iPads for all of the doctors on their entire staff.
So clearly there is something about the iPad that has gotten the medical community interested. What exactly that "something" is, I don't know. Whether you can get that "something" on an iPhone as easily as an iPad, I don't know.
Then there was an article I saw much more recently where some hospital (California maybe?) was going to be buying iPads for all of the doctors on their entire staff.
So clearly there is something about the iPad that has gotten the medical community interested. What exactly that "something" is, I don't know. Whether you can get that "something" on an iPhone as easily as an iPad, I don't know.
Thanks for the advice guys. I am actually in my last year of pharmacy school so there will be no more classsroom learning (it's a 7-year program). That's why I thought it would be better to get rid of my macbook pro and just get an iMac and iPad. However, I still considering the possibility of just keeping my MBP and get an iPad, but it just seems a little redundant to have two portable computers. Also, I already have the iPhone and plan on getting the new one this summer. So my question to you is do you use the iPad in the hospital? Do you think the iPad has an advantage over the iPhone while doing rounds, looking up information, etc? Also, do you have Citrix on your iPad and if so, is it handy?
I'm not a doc but my own physician has a tablet PC of some sort with a small keyboard that flips out from the back of the device. He uses it to review my past records, make notations on my current status, pull up reference materials and even to do basic sketches for me, superimposed over images he retrieves from somewhere. I've got a rare cardiac condition so I see him once per week while undergoing my treatments.
My point is that for him (and I've asked him about it), he SWEARS by his tablet PC. And this is a Windows-based device. I can only imagine he'd get even more mileage out of an iPad with ONE (IMHO) MAJOR exception.
Multitouch, while great for consuming data, is not going to be his best friend for entering data. Considering how he's using his tablet PC today, he uses a stylus and checks off a bajillion little boxes on his forms (this is obviously a custom app). That would work well enough on an iPad. But when he goes to sketch things for me or makes notations, he rests the heel of his hand against the glass of his tablet just like he would when writing normally. I would hope that the iPad can give apps control over multitouch so you can selectively disable it, but I'm not counting on it. As a free-form note taker I have my concerns if you can't. I've seen a lot of apps for this posted on the app store already, but this seems to be a recurring complaint from the users. Maybe someone with more experience than I can chime in here.
And also don't forget that your iPad needs a mother ship for docking and file management. There are workarounds (Goodreader), but they aren't going to replace iTunes. So you'll need a laptop or desktop in your arsenal at some point.
My point is that for him (and I've asked him about it), he SWEARS by his tablet PC. And this is a Windows-based device. I can only imagine he'd get even more mileage out of an iPad with ONE (IMHO) MAJOR exception.
Multitouch, while great for consuming data, is not going to be his best friend for entering data. Considering how he's using his tablet PC today, he uses a stylus and checks off a bajillion little boxes on his forms (this is obviously a custom app). That would work well enough on an iPad. But when he goes to sketch things for me or makes notations, he rests the heel of his hand against the glass of his tablet just like he would when writing normally. I would hope that the iPad can give apps control over multitouch so you can selectively disable it, but I'm not counting on it. As a free-form note taker I have my concerns if you can't. I've seen a lot of apps for this posted on the app store already, but this seems to be a recurring complaint from the users. Maybe someone with more experience than I can chime in here.
And also don't forget that your iPad needs a mother ship for docking and file management. There are workarounds (Goodreader), but they aren't going to replace iTunes. So you'll need a laptop or desktop in your arsenal at some point.
I did this exact thing. I had a 17" MacBook pro that stayed connected to a 24" LCD. When the iPad came out, I sold it and bought a late 2009 24" iMac from ebay. The difference of the MacBook pro for the iMac was $600. Guess what I bought with that $600? People are surprised by how much you can do on the ipad. You won't miss the MacBook pro, I promise you. I'm on a business trip right now and brought just my iPad and iPhone and have been able to do everything I've needed to do on the iPad with no hesitation or problems.
Hospitals are not likely to support iPad yet. You will probably get issued a tablet pc or notebook pc. If you work in retail, you will get some sad sack of a computer to do your order entry. I just can't see how an iPad can serve you in a medical setting so soon after its initial release. If you are content to take your own notes you share only with yourself, you can use your iPhone or iPad to take them. But if you are hoping to interact with some IT infrastructure at a hospital or a retail pharmacy it is probably going to be windows based.
I own a Macbook, a few Mac Minis (for the wife and kids), a netbook (Linux) and an iPad. The only device I'm going to be getting rid of is the netbook. When my Macbook AppleCare runs out, and when I get around to replacing it, I plan to replace it with a unibody aluminum Macbook Pro. I'd rather have my desktop machine a notebook with an external monitor than own an iMac. That's just my personal preference. Bottom line: keep the Macbook Pro. Add an iPad if you like, but don't expect the iPad to have any relevant use for some time to come and when it does you might be confronted with upgrading to a next generation model to be able to use whatever app your employer requires.
In the App Store right now, there are quite a few iPad medical apps available, including Lexi Comp and a number of "medical calculators". They are all brand new and probably buggy. While there are dozens of medical iPad apps, there are hundreds of medical iPhone apps. I suggest you grab some iPhone medical apps and give them a try. You can always run them in 2x mode on the iPad.
One iPad example is a freeware app called clearance. I don't think I'd want to rely on freeware for actual patient calculations, though.
I own a Macbook, a few Mac Minis (for the wife and kids), a netbook (Linux) and an iPad. The only device I'm going to be getting rid of is the netbook. When my Macbook AppleCare runs out, and when I get around to replacing it, I plan to replace it with a unibody aluminum Macbook Pro. I'd rather have my desktop machine a notebook with an external monitor than own an iMac. That's just my personal preference. Bottom line: keep the Macbook Pro. Add an iPad if you like, but don't expect the iPad to have any relevant use for some time to come and when it does you might be confronted with upgrading to a next generation model to be able to use whatever app your employer requires.
In the App Store right now, there are quite a few iPad medical apps available, including Lexi Comp and a number of "medical calculators". They are all brand new and probably buggy. While there are dozens of medical iPad apps, there are hundreds of medical iPhone apps. I suggest you grab some iPhone medical apps and give them a try. You can always run them in 2x mode on the iPad.
One iPad example is a freeware app called clearance. I don't think I'd want to rely on freeware for actual patient calculations, though.
I sold my MacBook Pro for a Mac mini and an iPad... no regrets!
I was able to get the high-end Mac mini and an iPad 64GB WiFi
I was able to get the high-end Mac mini and an iPad 64GB WiFi
Many hospitals especially acute setting managers are very anal regarding students or staff using tablets/pads/cell phones especially as students. Do not bring your ipad to clinicals. Not only will it be frowned upon. I putting data is a pain on it. Also managers will also be very particular about u using the device to store patient data which most of them will think u are doing. Just avoid it. I'm always secretive when I use my iPhone at work to reference drugs and was always a no no during school, as i've been chewed out several times lol.
But besides the whole "bringing it to clinical thing," u shouldn't have much of a problem unless u frequently use ur MacBook outside of home.
Ur still a student, lay low. Old people just don't understand.
But yeah iPad rocks in terms of leisurely use. I absolutely dread typing on this thing like I am doing now, but I'm just to lazy to get out of bed.
But besides the whole "bringing it to clinical thing," u shouldn't have much of a problem unless u frequently use ur MacBook outside of home.
Ur still a student, lay low. Old people just don't understand.
But yeah iPad rocks in terms of leisurely use. I absolutely dread typing on this thing like I am doing now, but I'm just to lazy to get out of bed.