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Here is a great example of why Apple mobile devices are going to be an even bigger success and in the very near future using fingerprint authentication.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Ottawa+Hospit al/6760414/story.html

Here is part of that article:

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Hospital’s groundbreaking decision to equip its doctors with iPads is already improving patient care, the hospital says.

The iPad experiment has been so successful, says Dr. Glen Geiger, the hospital’s chief medical information officer, that the Ottawa Hospital plans to provide thousands of iPhones and iPod Touches to its nurses, therapists and other staff if a pilot project now underway confirms their utility.

Since endorsing the iPad program in 2010, the hospital has deployed about 1,900 of the Apple tablets to doctors. “The demand for these devices was insatiable. It’s probably going to top out at about 3,000,” says Geiger, who adds: “As far as we know, this is the largest installation on the continent.”

The iPads allow doctors to access the latest patient records and test results while doing their rounds in hospital, replacing paper charts and eliminating the need for frequent visits to desktop computers at nursing stations.

“These are not freebies,” Geiger stresses. “This is not a toy. Many of our docs, right from the pilot, were very clear that it allows them to be better doctors.”

Initially, the iPads were mainly used to access test results. But since March, some doctors have been able to use them to order X-rays from a patient’s bedside as well. The Ottawa Hospital is the first in the world to do that, says Geiger.

“Now, if we want an X-ray, instead of carrying the papers with us or going back to the nursing station to get the requisitions, we can order it then and there,” Geiger says. As a result, both the efficiency of the process and patient confidence in the level of care have improved.

More uses for the mobile devices are in the works. Starting this fall, doctors will be able to use their iPads to order lab tests, Geiger says.

Next year, the hospital plans to roll out medication ordering on iPads and iPhones. Nurses will be able to use their devices to match the medication’s bar code with bar codes on patients’ wristbands, reducing the risk of error. Ultimately, the hospital hopes to use the mobile devices for secure messaging between care team members.

That’s a key reason why the hospital decided to provide the devices to staff rather than allow them to use their personal devices, Geiger says. “Patient privacy is a big deal to me. If people are using their own personal devices, then we can’t guarantee the security of the patient information.”

The introduction of iPads and other Apple mobile devices is part of a larger strategy the hospital calls “back to the bedside,” Geiger says.

Deploying iPads has been neither cheap nor easy, however. The hospital budgeted $1.2 million for the devices in 2011 alone, and will spend more this year to complete the rollout. There will also be ongoing costs to replace iPads that break, are lost or become obsolete, plus the potential expense of buying up to 5,000 iPhones or iPad touches for nurses and other staff down the road.

But that spending will be partly offset by reduced spending on PCs and lower training costs, Geiger says.

Take-up by busy doctors was initially slow. The hospital finally established physical depots — “quartermaster’s offices,” Geiger calls them — at its General and Civic campuses to dispense the devices. Those depots are now deploying about 300 iPads per month.

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