How might the iPad change healthcare?

Abstract

Mainly conceived as tools to support the consumption rather than the production of information, wireless ‘media tablets’ such as Apple’s iPad provide a delivery and visualization medium for stored and online documents, images and video, as well as a portal to a vast array of downloadable ‘Apps’ serving a variety of purposes. They share characteristics with both mobile phones and laptop computers, but typically offer a larger and more intuitive interface than the former whilst being more portable and simpler to operate than the latter. Although e-health applications are not unique to wireless media tablets, there are unique reasons why they may be well placed to facilitate e-health.