back to article Oz docs prescribed iPads by Premier

Australian state Victoria is to hand out iPads to all the doctors it employs in its hospital - if the state's Premier is re-elected on 27 November. A desperate bid by incumbent Premier John Brumby to tempt medicos with shiny new toys? Not so, says Brumby. Giving doctors an iPad each will cost Au$12m (£7.6m), his Labor Party …

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  1. Patrick O'Reilly
    Coat

    Dr.Andrews

    Oh so a politician has said that WiFi won't alter my brain wave, with zero scientific proof to back it up. Of course he is totally aware that WiFi works at the same frequency as a microwave so it's got to be 100% safe.

    I'm confused, which should I put on first, my white coat or my tinfoil hat?

    1. Dave Gregory
      FAIL

      I Know...

      ...Your tinfoil hat. Definitely your tinfoil hat.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Curious...

    Apple have created a myth that if your buisness uses an iPad, then it's clearly hi-tech and "with it"...

    Sadly the reality is, if they REALLY needed tablets, then they could have had Android ones for half the price, with no app restrictions or lockdown and more functionality.

    Idiots.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not always half price..

      Seen the Galaxy Tab yet???

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Apple?

      Apple have created the myth have they? How's that then. Source?

      The medical profession has been using tablets for ages. Clearly they feel the iPad meets their needs. Hard to imagine them being 'idiots'.

      Without being a smartarse, can you point to the Android tablets you're talking about?

      1. Jimmy Floyd
        Pint

        @Gavin 12

        "The medical profession has been using tablets for ages. <snip> Hard to imagine them being 'idiots'."

        You've never been out drinking with doctors then...

    3. Player_16

      REALLY...

      I think they were talking about currently, proven tablets, not next year, experimental tablets.

  3. It wasnt me
    Thumb Down

    Godd luck aus......

    "Nationally, the Labour government has pledged to spend the best part of Au$500m (£315m) on e-health tech."

    That really won't buy you a lot i'm afraid. And what little it won't buy you won't work. You will just have a couple of very rich computer consultants, and some more managers.

    Please think before committing aussies - trust us, we know.

    Love from your fatherland.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not as bad as you think

      Scans, x-rays and other patient info are sent around hospitals electronically in the part where I live, and hence the use of a *secured* tablet device makes sense. Couple it with a patient barcode scanner to prevent fuck-ups and they may be onto something - it is a job that tablets are suited to.

      The health IT that they prefer to balls-up totally here is payroll.

      Whether the iPad is cost effective or the best one for the job is a different matter entirely.

  4. The Indomitable Gall

    iPads?!?

    Some of the clinical software for iOS would be handy, but much of it simply replicates what the doctor has in the office. If they want an iOS device for the average doc, it should be the iPhone. With drug dosing apps, a digital stethoscope and an artificial respiration timer in his pocket, a doctor would be able to respond to any emergency at any time. He's not going to carry the iPad everywhere, though. It'll stay in his medical bag, but it will make it heavier, not lighter.

  5. Pen-y-gors

    Sanitation?

    Given that hospitals are justifiably concerned about hygiene these days, has anyone tried testing these gadgets to see how well they perform after 15 minutes of steam in an autoclave? Or is it back to a quick spray and rub down from the old telephone sanitiser?

  6. Slipgate

    Web Apps

    “The iPads will allow doctors and nurses to access any web-enabled application run by their hospital ..."

    Let's hope they're not flash based...

    1. Mr Floppy

      app store

      Don't worry about them being flash based, they aren't even that. Most are crappy buggy VB forms.

      Really, who designs and writes medical software? They are the worst engineered software in the world. At one place I worked, I had to convert an app from VB to C++ because the VB was slow and a memory hog. Of course no documentation and had to reverse engineer the system only to have another software company sell us a product promising great things. Their input boxes lined up, that was about it.

      So unless they also want to spend some money to hire some good software engineers and designer and have standard data formats, iPads count for naught.

      Web based would be a start

  7. Dave Gregory
    Thumb Down

    Infection control

    Hilarious voiding of warranties as soon as they get moistened with a Clini-Clean or similar wipe. Probably won't do the screen a lot of good either. But it's OK cos an apple product could never be a vector for pathogens.

  8. Andrew Newstead
    Coat

    Let me just say...

    keep taking the tablets...

    ok, I'll get my coat.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Horns

      Re: keep taking the tablets...

      Better still, make all iPad fanbois use their fondle-slabs as suppositories...

  9. Neoc

    WTF?

    Based on these numbers (and assuming a modest Government Bulk Discount), they're talking about the 64GB 3G iPad. Someone tell me *why* an Australian Doctor (who rarely step out of the local surgery or the hospital to practice medicine) needs a 3G iPad? Or 64GB of memory since most of the records should be kept in the surgery/hospital's fileservers when not in actual use?

    BTW: I am Australian and have a 64GB 3G iPad, which I haven't filled to half-way yet despite loading with NAS podcasts, CD rips, eBooks and manga. But I do not live in the State in question, so my opinion obviously doesn't matter..

    1. Player_16

      Hey, it's tax payers money!

      Gov. give them a budget; order the high-end gear to the nearest penny for IF they don't, they'll be criticised for not spending what was given to them and they would be given less the next time around.

      I'm from a neighbouring country but we want to be like the northern, big island. (Tassie),

    2. dylan 4
      Flame

      Why 3G? Two words:

      On Call.

      BTW, your opinion doesn't matter because your lack of understanding of healthcare is unfortunately not offset by your intimate understanding of manga. Short-skirted buxom schoolgirls injured in battles with flying fire breathing tentacled penises just aren't as big a part of day-to-day medicine as manga may have you believe. As for listening to podcasts about NAS, my condolences, how very sad.

      FWIW, you're right about 64GB being overkill, but it's a cheap way of keeping a very picky, very expensive workforce happy. You're talking about people who can earn $500k plus per annum easily in private practice working for a public hospital for $200k per annum. Shallow as it sounds, you earn a lot more goodwill from buying them "the top model" than you save in $ by buying them "some worthless crippled cheap model, as if I don't slave away day and night blah blah blah".

      1. Neoc
        WTF?

        Yeah, yeah, flame.

        "BTW, your opinion doesn't matter because your lack of understanding of healthcare is unfortunately not offset by your intimate understanding of manga. Short-skirted buxom schoolgirls injured in battles with flying fire breathing tentacled penises just aren't as big a part of day-to-day medicine as manga may have you believe. As for listening to podcasts about NAS, my condolences, how very sad."

        First of all, the NAS was a mistype - it was meant to be NASA.

        Second - thank you for showing the usual bigotry about manga, fuelled no doubt by the popular press who agonise loudly about the small percentage of adult-oriented titles and forget that manga is a *medium* not a *genre*. You're comment is on the same line as someone condemning all magazines because Playboy, Hustler and Penthouse exist for adult.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    What's the use of web-enabled iPads

    When the web will be censored?

    Coat, hat, etc.

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