We are well into the digital revolution in Healthcare. Gone are the days of clipboards and storage rooms filled with folders of handwritten patient records. Medical Tablets are now the standard way medical data is captured and received at the point of care. These tablets eliminate the need to record notes on paper and transcribe them into Electronic Medical Records, saving time and money and boosting efficiency. Care providers now have access to up-to-date patient information right at their fingertips so long as they are in range of a cell tower or a wifi connection. Put simply, with the advent of medical tablets, it has never been easier to review patient records, lab results, and prescription drug information.

Of course, not just any tablet will do. You need something technologically advanced and tough enough to handle everything a busy medical facility can throw at it. The best medical tablets for healthcare should include the following features: power & portability, easy usage, liquid resistant, and medical-grade certifications. Also, antimicrobial* properties protect the computer casing from deterioration and degradation.

Power & Portability

With the sheer quantity of data they will need to access, from patient records to diagnostic images, the best medical tablets on the market will provide plenty of storage space – 128 to 500 GB is recommended. But, of course, this storage space needs to be balanced with portability. So the right medical tablet will be lightweight and easy to carry for care providers to carry from room to room and patient to patient. 

You need a device that is not only small but powerful, capable of performing under the intense pressure of a busy healthcare facility while running multiple applications simultaneously. Accordingly, you should look for medical tablets with lightning-fast processors, somewhere in the range of 1.9 to 3.2 GHz, as well as a minimum of 8GB of memory to run Windows in 64-bit mode.

Ease of Use

To minimize the time needed to retrain staff on a new device, ease of use is of utmost importance when looking to purchase medical tablets. As such, not only should medical tablets have a low learning curve to operate, they should also be lightweight and ergonomic. After all, a clean user interface is meaningless if your staff is forced to lug around a 10-pound computer all day. 

Any medical grade tablet you purchase should be compatible with HIPAA-compliant applications so physicians can do things like write prescriptions directly on the tablet. It should have a touch screen AND a stylus to sign consent forms and other essential documents with ease. Additionally, medical tablets need to have built-in 2d and RFID scanners, so you can scan patient wrist bands and medications without needing cumbersome peripherals. 

Rugged Construction

As anyone who has dropped an iPhone or iPad will tell you, portable computing devices are incredibly fragile and prone to breaking in normal circumstances. Now imagine them being deployed in a busy hospital. A good medical tablet should be able to withstand being put through the paces of day-to-day use in the busiest medical facilities. In addition, they should be rugged enough to survive drops, dings, and other physical impacts without breaking or losing their functionality.

Liquid Resistant

Physical damage is not the only concern when it comes to deploying tablets in medical facilities. Any portable computing device used for medical purposes will inevitably come into contact with various biohazards, from microscopic pathogens to arrant bodily fluids.

It is essential to look for tablets that have an IP65 ingress protection rating. That way, you can be sure they are resistant to dust and liquids, which helps prevent contamination from bodily fluids such as blood and saliva. Such a rating also means the tablets are easy to disinfect without causing damage to the tablet’s internal components.

Medical Grade Certifications

Any computing device deployed in a medical facility should be designed for near-patient use, with EN60601-1 and UL60950 certifications to ensure safety.  Such accreditation means they comply with the IEC60601-1 standards for near-patient use in critical care and other clinical settings, including OR, ER & medication dispensing.

If you’re interested in finding out how medical tablets can enhance care at your medical facility, contact the experts at Cybernet today!

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