On April 11, Samsung will release its Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet in U.S. retail stores. The Galaxy Note and tablets like it have become as common as around many doctors’ offices as the stethoscope.
Tablets give physicians access to patient information wherever it's needed, and they integrate with multiple healthcare solutions. Doctors can also use attachments to make the devices even more practical. The Samsung Galaxy Note's S Pen, for example, allows doctors to create and edit work, take notes and create signatures.
A recent survey of Texas physicians found that 80 percent had smartphones and 50 percent had tablets. Dr. Ferdinand Velasco, chief health information officer for Texas Health Resources, credits a recent surge in BYOD behavior at hospitals.
"Clinicians are fundamentally a mobile workforce," explained Velasco in an article for HealthLeaders magazine. "They don't work in a desktop or a work office type of environment like in other businesses. They're constantly moving about. They move between their physician office setting and the hospital, and when they're in the hospital, they go from room to room and floor to floor. Even in their own office they're not sitting behind a desk."
Because they fit with the way physicians work and because they typically have easy-to-use interfaces, physicians have adopted tablets much more readily than either PC workstations-on-wheels or laptops.
Also, BYOD cuts costs and gives medical professionals the autonomy to use their own devices. As a result, administrators see tablet adoption as an increasing convergence between what they want and what medical staff wants.
"From the clinician's perspective, their life is incredibly complex. Healthcare is more complex, the administration of medicine is more complex, and people are working very, very hard," said Dr. Jonathan Perlin, chief medical officer of HCA's clinical and physician services group. "When they say, ‘If I could use my device, it would improve my efficiency and my effectiveness,' that's a pretty compelling statement."
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is a mid-sized tablet featuring Samsung for Enterprise (SAFE). SAFE guarantees reliability for the Galaxy Note 8.0 by offering standardization across devices and certified security features.
MSRP for Galaxy Note 8.0 is $399. In addition to being available to retailers on April 11, the tablet will become available from Samsung's channel partners in May.
Edited by
Braden Becker
