Healthcare Technology Featured Article

December 08, 2010

Healthcare Technology and News: Medical-Sector Companies Appear to Favor Apple iPads in Sales Pitches: News Report


It appears that several companies in the medical sector are increasingly using the Apple iPad computer for sales presentations to physicians.

Dow Jones News Wires reports that pharmaceutical and medical device companies are passing out thousands of iPad tablet computers to sales reps for pitches to doctors.

Examples cited by Dow Jones include: Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc., and Boston Scientific Corp.

Other companies in the health-care sector plan to use the iPad tablet computer after testing is completed.

Dow Jones explains tablet PCs provide “new ways to display product information or surgical-implant techniques, and help eliminate time wasted on issues that don't drive sales, according to companies.”

An added benefit is that iPads have fast start-up times so physicians’ minds do not wander while waiting for the computer to start, Dow Jones reports.

"[The iPad] enables our sales employees to do a much better job of engaging in a really different way than we've done before," Mike Hedges, chief information officer of Medtronic, told Dow Jones.

Medtronic, which makes implantable heart devices (such as pacemakers and defibrillators) as well as other medical devices, recently purchased 4,500 iPads for sales and marketing staff, Dow Jones reports. More purchases are likely.

Dow Jones adds that Boston Scientific, a heart-device maker, recently purchased 2,000 iPads for its sales staff, and orthopedics company, Zimmer Holdings Inc., purchased more than 1,000 tablet computers.

In addition, St. Jude Medical Inc. is testing iPads and other tablet computers with its sales force, Dow Jones said.

The health-care sector is one of several business sectors that Apple wants to sell more computers to, Dow Jones reports.

In fact, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said during a quarterly conference call that 65 percent of “the Fortune 100 companies are either deploying or testing the use of iPads,” Dow Jones reports.

The iPad was wildly popular with consumers after it was released earlier this year.

A second version of the iPad is expected to be released in the first half of 2011.

In other Apple company news, HealthTechZone reports that Apple may soon be forced to offer lower-priced iPads, according to a survey of 4,800 U.S. and European consumers conducted by Strategy Analytics’ Tablet and Touchscreen Strategies service.


Ed Silverstein is a HealthTechZone contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Erin Monda
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