Experts rubbish iPhone for health use Two NHS mobile equipment specialists have said that the short battery life of Apple's iPhone makes it unsuitable for use in health work Paul Curley, clinical director of IT and consultant surgeon for Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said that his organisation's tests had found that personal digital assistants were viable for …
«Curley said the ideal mobile device for use in hospitals would need to allow for a "hot swap" of batteries, without the device closing while these were changed, session persistance and fast log-in and connection. It would also be "ultra portable", have a good battery life, not get too hot while in use and be "cheapish".»
And make coffe, while you're at it, no?
With an iPhone, ANY swap of batteries by the user would be a nice little "value-adding feature"....
Disclaimer: I run a Blackberry, and hammer it enough to require recharging each night - which is more often than I would like. People around me using iPhones normally need to recharge them through the day, which is just plain nuts!
Given the battery life on a BlackBerry, I'd bet on one of those for 24/7 operation. The only way I've ever been able to drain a fully-charged battery is by running a crapload of apps, turning on GPS, WiFi *and* 3G while having a -120 dB signal, while chatting away on MSN Messenger *and* Yahoo Messenger. Even then, it worked for 10 hours on a single charge. I'm pretty sure that without GPS, the battery might even break the 24-hour barrier even with both 3G and WiFi transmitters working.
Also, BlackBerries seem to take a good deal of abuse without breaking... the iBone's main feature is also it's main vulnerability: the touchscreen. It is a nice toy, but it isn't quite cut for serious use.
Bicycles not suitable for crossing lakes, strawberry jam no use in scanning for security threats at airports.
Many other devices not ideally suited for purposes that they were not designed for.
I can see the point of trying this sort of thing in specialised areas like medicine to see if lower cost kit can be deployed instead of more expensive purpose-built stuff, but why on earth would you be surprised when it does and why on earth would you then issue a press release?
Are they going to issue a follow up saying netbooks aren't suitable to run their back-office IT services on either?
I know, how about:
"NHS mobile equipment specialists unsuitable to provide specialist NHS mobile equipment"?
Looks closer to the mark to me. Or did the definition of "specialist" change when I wasn't looking?
Teh mobilez in hospitols killz teh macheens nad cause teh patient deaths!!!!!!!
Oh, right, it's OK for doctors and nurses to use mobile devices in hospitals but not patients you say? There's something magical about a healthcare professional that makes stops their phone interfering with any electronic equipment -- but a patient's phone would immediately cause all life support machines to die?
Make your minds up NHS, please.
They are not bothered by this anymore
BUT ...
They are now trying to ban mobile phones due to patient Privacy Bah ...
I wouldnt care less and obey their rules happily if those bans wernt just in the hospitals with freaking bedside phones !!!!!!!!
Money grabbing tards .....
Leave me and my phone alone ......
I absolutely love the idea of a hot swap battery, my current (winmo) phone also has a v short battery life when i'm working out in the field, I've a spare battery and swap halfway through the day, but it would be so much more convenient if i didn't have to reset the phone and reload all the running apps at the same time.
Good phone design ideas from the NHS.
who'd of thunk it?
its on those ridiculously expensive arm-mounted televisions they insisted on putting on every bedside that patients pay a fiver a day for poor television and rubbish internet access. Why dont they have a "doctors and nurses" screen that allows access to what they need? a login option will even track the nurse or doctor who looked at the information.
That way they may not have been the massive waste of money elephant they appeared to be!
They don't own the system or the network it's connected to!
They outsourced the patient entertainment and communication to a commercial company, which is why you pay 50p a minute to speak to a sick relative.
If the NHS wanted to use those screens they'd end up handing over huge wedges of cash.
As swappable batteries, "session persistance" (which would imply being able to do something else while your application session remains active in the background) and "cheapish" are core requirements, the only mystery here is why they've bothered to consider the iPhone at all.
I guess "must try this 'cos its trendy" overrides the sound technical requirements. Again.
They like Blackberries and need a big screen? I'll have a fiver on the BB Storm2 winning this one....
"Curley said the ideal mobile device for use in hospitals would need to allow for a "hot swap" of batteries, without the device closing while these were changed, session persistance and fast log-in and connection. It would also be "ultra portable", have a good battery life, not get too hot while in use and be "cheapish"."
So why bother testing the iPhone? It's common knowledge that it does not meet a number of their criteria, and it sure isn't "cheapish." Sounds like he just wanted to play around with one.
Everyone will ask why not. "It'd be brilliant, it's so easy to use, blah, blah, blah".
It probably took less time to test the iPhone, and to clearly document it's very specific shortcomings, than it would take to constantly rehash the issue over the next 3 or 4 years when the iPhone isn't "blessed".
One of the first things I noticed when I started using my iPod Touch was that if I reduce the screen brightness to a lower level that still remains comfortable, I could increase the effective battery life by a considerable amount.
The same works on the iPhone: My wife's iPhone used to last about two to three hours of constant usage, but reducing the brightness of the screen increased that considerably.
We've found that a brightness setting between a 1/3 to 1/2 of maximum is still comfortable to use. The default is full brightness, which consumes much of the battery's power.
-dZ.
This is clearly a job for the N1/Milestone, replaceable batteries, and while probably not recommended you can swap them while powering the device through USB.
Nice hi resolution screens and easy as hell to develop for.
Flames for the torrent of iPhone fanbois who will vote this post into the darkest recesses of Hell.
When the G1 and Nexus are on charge (mains or USB) the second the battery is removed they die. Tested on both.
What you want is the hardware spec of the Nexus in a G1 chassis (with that lovely keyboard) and the fat back with an extended range 2200mAh battery. I can get 5 hours continuous* use out of the G1 with one of those in.
*Screen, radios, chip all running. Real use, not this 'standby time' that the vendors pull out of the backside of a unicorn.
Still amazes me the lack of market knowledge in IT department...The iPhone has got a variety of hotswap battery packs available....And they work very well...And eh...session persistence does not have to be at the client, but can be on the iPhone as well..All depends on how your server application handles it as well...Not hard to do...
I immediately pricked up my ears at this comment and went a searching. All I can find are portable 'chargers' / power units ... some of them masquerading as cases etc. Please point me to the solution you are thinking of as I do not believe that plugging in a portable power unit is really what is meant here? I think somebody wants the unit to stay the size of the unit and be able to pop a new battery in without shutting down ... or in the case of the iPhone ... not being able to change the battery at all is a bit of an issue to achieving this ... most of the iPhone solutions double phone size in some or other dimension!
My coat cause I am sure my reply will incur the wrath of some fanbois ...
I understand that the number of problems caused by mobiles in hospital is in single figures, the biggest problem is those 'screen things' with their £5 a day cost. (Thinks, - is that where five a day came from?). I was told that many hospitals have/had a contract to prevent patients using mobile phones so that they would be forced onto those 5-a-day boxes.
As for using the iPhone, I guess that it is good to use off the shelf kit and good that this time it IS being piloted first, but no surprised that it has failed. Many people I know would like the iPhone to be able to make telephone calls, when they want to make them and not just if it decides to allow them to connect.
I work in Public Sector too, we've got the same problems. But they are self inflicted problems, why use a smart phone to do these jobs when a good tablet PC meets all requirements?
Iphone is no good if you need to use it all day, but then even if it had the battery life you'd have square eyes at the end of a day, an ipad might do what they need. But then whats so wrong with a decent tablet P?
The MediSlat MCA i1040XT already meets almost all of these needs and has network security at an acceptable level as it runs Windows XP Pro or Vista Business editions. It even allows for hot swapping batteries.
OK, it's not cheap, but it's fit for purpose, proven and available.
What's even more amazing is it took me 10 minutes to find this product via Google and didn't involve an expensive trial period of inappropriate technology.
Read more here:
http://www.tabletkiosk.com/products/medislate/i1040xt_overview.asp
I think something like this was on the register a few weeks back, with a comparison to the imaxiPad. And when you say its fit for purpose, you are exactly right, none of the things that they tested, the iphone or blackberry are fit for use in the medical sector. How are you going to disinfect them without damaging the device.
Lithium polymer batteries are too dangerous to be user-replaceable, which is why as they are adopted, they are sealed inside.
Maybe there is a more expensive battery available that they can have soldered inside by a bespoke supplier?
I jut put a new chinese battery in my iPhone 2G and the battery life is much higher than it ever was with the original one, even when new, and the mAh is higher.
Besides all the great points made above (and the fact there are tons of specialized portable devices already made for the medical industry) WTF are they on about viewing medical scans on a hand held device!!!! Are medical professionals so enamored with electronic gadgets that they want to view medical imagery on an iPhone or BlackBerry?
Portable devices for recording and reviewing general patient observations and medications, and such is a good idea, using them for imagery is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard.
There is no such thing as a mobile device with a hot swap battery, while not shutting down. The thing RUNS ON A BATTERY. YOU TAKE THE BATTERY OUT, and NO POWER. DUH!!!! At least with a Blackberry, YOU CAN swap batteries. With the iPhone, no go. The iPhone wasn't designed for any sort of "work". It's a consumer device. NOT a business mobile like the Blackberry.
there are at least six manufacturers that produce external battery packs for the iPhone. as long as the phone battery isn't utterly drained, the external battery can be swapped out without shutting down the phone. try reading the comments sometime, this has been mentioned several times already. oh i forgot, you were using your blackberry.
could be in a device with two batteries- one fixed internal to keep it powered up for maybe 1minute after you've removed the device (at, say, one watt of power- screen off and just keeping the RAM and a few other bits live- that'd mean a tiny 0.017Wh battery, which would be a small lithium coin-cell style battery) and one swappable main battery. Main battery, when plugged in, would charge smaller battery while simultaneously keeping the device live.
So to throw it back at you, YOU USE TWO BATTERIES. DUH!!!
Apple's original tablet had a faithful following as a device for medical applications. It's amazing battery life was one of the reasons it was so successful even after Windows CE machines came along with colour screens.
If only there was something like the Psion organisers around today that combined battery life, ergonomics and all-round loveliness.
One question - why are they allowed network devices in a hospital when we're expected to switch all our electronic gizmos off?
If the Blackberry runs out of power, the swap of the battery is not hot...
Hot-Swappable batteries fo the iPhone exist. Here are two:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/DLO+-+JumpStart+External+Battery+for+Apple%26%23174%3B+iPod%26%23174%3B+and+iPhone/9480233.p?skuId=9480233&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=9480233&ref=06&loc=01&id=1218112363245
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=iphone+external+battery&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=330057407863458230&ei=1PWHS_CPN4jgNdjapNQO&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCMQ8wIwAQ#ps-sellers
It seems the business problem is solved for the iPhone and not the Blackberry?
Well of course it's not fucking suitable for use as a medical device. There are a whole bloody host of things that it's not suitable for. Basically it's a pretty shite platform for most business apps due to e.g. lack of bluetooth, lack of multitasking (well, not lack, buy you know what I mean) and a whole host of other dumb ass restrictions piled on by Apple in an effort to a) maintain their premium branding, b) control the 'user experience', and c) well just generally be pack of four letter words beginning with C.
And I say that as someone who has recently added 'iPhone' to his development platforms. It's a shite platform for anything other than being a shiny toy, and even as a shiny toy lack of basics like OBEX make it bloody annoying. The vast lack of biz apps that you simply can't build around an iPhone because Apple won't let you is staggering. The very fact that these idiots decided to try is proof that despite it's paucity of features and general unfitness for such tasks, it's overall shinyness makes it attractive enough to close down peoples critical reasoning functions. As with many of the iPhone based biz projects I've been watching fail recently, I suspect what we are seeing is a persuasive dev team who somehow managed to write a plausible sounding business case as to why their employer should buy them all iPhones and pay to enroll them in the dev program. Can't imagine why they'd want that, can you ?
FWIW I hear that med profs actually do like Win 7 tablets, which let's face it are a far more suitable form factor to begin with. Why ? Because they like the handwriting recognition. Hate the fucker personally but then I'm not a medical professional informatics practitioner, or whatever they're called this week. Graffiti FTW, except that I can't sell it to you, cos bastard Xerox own a patent on it.
Also, I should like to point out that even though am I now the owner of several macs, a jesus phone and soon a stupid bloody iPad, I still hate mac fanbois, creepy kool aid swilling bunch, so you are. Oh yeah, and Apple are WAY more evil than MS, can't even change the color of the menubars in snow leopard, fucking retards.
Meh!
I worked in an NHS trust IT projects department a couple of years ago, where we trialed a couple of different tablets (Panasonic prototype and MCA).
Nobody bothered to use them.
Largely it was the lack of suitable apps, which is really key for touchscreen devices - the windows menus are too fiddly, on-screen keyboard is too slow and takes up too much real estate, and handwriting recognition just didn't work well enough (not to mention the training and config required to get it working with a full medical dictionary for 20 different users). The panasonic tried to get around the shortcomings of stylus driven devices by implementing a resistive touchscreen as well, but it just wasn't accurate enough and we ended up turning it off as it was too frustrating (prototype device so maybe drivers got fixed for production).
Another major factor was the lack of sufficient hands - who knew that nurses are still only available with two arms each? Once you're carrying the device, you only have on hand free, so no pushing a trolley, or doing anything clinical without putting the device down. And they really weren't all that usable handheld - fine for short stints, but too heavy to use for a whole ward round. No, you need to put them down to use them effectively, by which time you may as well have a laptop (with keyboard).
Once the applications are available which are designed for touchscreen use, there will be a niche for tablets, but this isn't it. You will never get doctors using tablets because they just aren't portable enough. Docs need a device that can go in their pocket, or they just won't use it.
Despite all the naysayers, the iPhone is a pretty good platform for deployment to non-geek users, who just want to use their simple app for a quick and dirty task. It may not be great for "power users", but caters well for the lowest common denominator - and surely we can agree here that delivering effective medicine is the point, not delivering the be-all of smartphone devices? Battery life is a factor, but once you get into the realm of pretty UIs, processor intensive apps like imaging, 3G and wireless connectivity, battery life will diminish, regardless of vendor. None of these devices are designed for constant intensive use, as that is not how most are used in the real world. Anyone spending 5 hours using their phone as a portable computing device through the course of a day could probably have got that work done in 3 hours sitting at a desk in front of full-size PC.
"Medical grade" devices are IMO largely just an excuse for charging 1500 quid for a touchscreen PC with an Atom processor and 1Gb memory. Yes, it may be easier to clean, but that doesn't mean it will be cleaned while pens, hands, pagers, mobiles and shirtsleeves continue to spread bugs around.
I will always remember overhearing a nurse on a GI ward, on hearing of a ward closure due to C. Diff, opining "Oh no, I bet I'll be off with the runs tomorrow, I'm always the first to come down with it" - while chewing the end of her pen, sandwich on the desk in front of her at the nurses' station.
The intended use for this device includes displaying high resolution scans used for diagnosis. This clearly makes the combination of the device and the software packages on it a medical device. There are rightly strict requirements to comply with the medical device directive whcih I doubt any of the mentioned devices comply with either from an electrical or software point of view.A hazard analysis for its intended us should be performed and it is usual although not a legal requirement that the appropriate safety standard ISO/IEC 60601-1 is applied. It must be registered with a notified body eg. MHRA.
Some obvious hazards they should consider is:
Cleaning/disinfection. An obvious route for infection.
Software reliability/integrity. Asa platform for diagnosis they need to demonstrate that the sofwtare will be reliable and that the softeare version/configuration is controlled.
Security
Medical environment restrictions: near an MR, in an environment wth explosive gases, near diathermy equipment ...
Whoever supplies the device will have a lot of work to do or the sale will be illegal and any injuries will make them liable.
It's funny whenever you read electrical components datasheets. Without a exception they ban the usage in devices for medical, or anywhere where the failure of part might endanger life. Here's the National Semiconductor Incs version:
"LIFE SUPPORT POLICY
NATIONAL’S PRODUCTS ARE NOT AUTHORIZED FOR USE AS CRITICAL COMPONENTS IN LIFE SUPPORT DEVICES OR SYSTEMS
WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN APPROVAL OF THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL OF NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
CORPORATION. As used herein:
1. Life support devices or systems are devices or systems
which, (a) are intended for surgical implant into the body, or
(b) support or sustain life, and whose failure to perform when
properly used in accordance with instructions for use
provided in the labeling, can be reasonably expected to result
in a significant injury to the user.
2. A critical component is any component of a life support
device or system whose failure to perform can be reasonably
expected to cause the failure of the life support device or
system, or to affect its safety or effectiveness."
So the first hurdle would be getting the written permission to use parts in medical apparatuses. I doubt many, if any are given.
I doubt any phone manufacturer will start to offer phones officially for doctors, for fear of litigation. Some display driver bug that flips picture, patient gets wrong leg amputeet, and lawyers get work....
It lasts all day on the same (if not slightly more) usage than on my last XDA without needing a charge. I charge it at night. No idea how long a charge needs, I is sleeping anyway.
Given all the important patient info is written in a folder stuffed at the bottom of the bed, I am at a loss as to understand the point of this research.
NHS has spent billions of tax payers money on a new IT system (that's broken, late and over budget, as with all public sector IT systems). All patient data gets put onto it, and then it will tie into the Gov ID database also so anyone can get access to patient data.
There obviously needs to be a method of access to this ;)
Is because Apple has repeatedly tried to push the iPhone as a help to medical professionals. This flies in the face of Apple's own PR. I think it was during one of their keynote speeches that they played soft focus video of some Doctor telling us how great it was for seeing scans.
Yeah, I used to hear this sort of complaint quite often from one source, Guy Kawasaki. What a prat. He would constantly whine on his blog about how terrible the battery life was on his PowerBook and it wouldn't last through long airplane flights. I finally couldn't take it anymore, I told him directly, "STFU and buy a a second battery. You can afford it."
I think it worked, he did STFU.
So that's 4 hours or so?
The Medislate looks *very* impressive for this application. Bit heavy but *lots* of security (as befits a merkin product that could indirectly give you access to some excellent pharmacy grade drugs), multi-tasking and emphasises it is hot swappable in the battery department.
Down side (as many specialist hardware types are) is that it will likely be premium priced and on a slower update cycle than more conventional designs.
BTW regarding screen size. Is this not what scroll bars and a zoom function are for?
Panasonic are another company that produce a medical tablet, can be disenfected, steamed, dropped and runs for ever on its battery, Windows based so all the software runs without needing recoding and with encryption and biometric logins, retively secure... it also looks like nothing you would really want to steal!!!
the iphone is cool, but its a consumer fasion accesory get something thats fit for purpose!
with the iphone, wouldnt all the NHS software have to be availiable to the public in the appstore???
Well, Epocrates, the killer mobile app for health, has come out on webOS just a few weeks after the iPhone version. It has a couple of major advantages over its iPhone sibling:
1. Palm units have removable batteries - i.e. get an after-market "rump shaker" and you've got double the battery life. Just not an option with iPhone. Epocrates stores all its data locally so you dont have to worry about constant data traffic killing your battery either, just the screen and CPU
2. Because webOS has true multitasking, you can switch to another app like email and not have to wait for Epocrates to re-load a humungous medical database when you switch back.
Get in there, Palm!
They need to be looking at devices designed for the job to satisfy all their requirements. They'd also need to be more robust than anything Apple churns out too as almost certainly these are going to get dropped or thrown about a lot as they rush about. Charging all the time or carrying external battery packs isn't going to be practical. They need the applications they require with reliability and most likely plenty of on device storage to avoid issues with networks being down, and just imagine the NHS trying to get their apps approved by Jobs !
No, they need to go to a medical IT supplier, but remember we will be paying for it, and being public sector it will go way over budget.
Anyway, aren't there rules about the public sector affiliating themselves with a religious group? ;)
Simple. Government gets an asset built *without* it showing on their borrowing requirement.
Something for nothing.
Except the leasing costs will be a *lot* more than the cost to build them had the government borrowed the money directly. IIRC the figures int he UK are roughly £60bn in assets for £80-90bn in costs.
And the companies concerned have worked various re-financing deals to lower the cost to *them* even further.
The UK government has not sought *any* kind of rebate on these deals, despite the fact the re-financing deal has dropped the companies costs through the floor, as "It might frighten off any future prospective bidders."
UK tax payers get better (in theory, unless the builders have dropped the quality to make *even* more money which has happened) built for free (at massively increased leasing charges with built in price escalator clauses) for 30 years.
The classic no money for assets but lots for overhead routine for an electorate that wants it all and wants it *now*.
NB The Labour term for it is a Public Private Partnership. That's where the public takes all the risk, the private takes all the cash. PFI is the original Conservative name for this.
Did they buy a set of kitchen knives from ASDA and found they were no good for slicing up patients compared to a scalpel??
I suppose that 12v compressor bought from Halfords isn't going to be much use as a respirator either.
Why don't they detail what they want in huge detail and get someone to build it for them. You don't see them using phones on the trains for ticketing, they have a custom made device (with a huge battery).
According to SDI's Mobile & Social Media Study: Physicians' Views of Emerging Technology, approximately 30% of physicians access medical information using a handheld device or smartphone. The most popular handheld device or smartphone is the Apple iPhone, with 31% of respondents owning one.
Doctors are more likely to be using the iPhone than any other phone for providing health care to their patients.
Thus, the pundits' arguments against the iPhone is moot.
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