A medical student's perspective on using the ipad2

[p53]

Hi everyone,

I felt as though I should make a follow up thread after my hugely successful "cracked ipad" thread =]. I've been using my ipad 2 now every single day since I picked it up back in March. I am a 3rd year medical student, and the ipad has made my life so much easier. I had some ideas about its utility prior to buying it, but the ipad has totally surpassed my expectations.

For example, I have integrated the ipad into morning rounds when the team of physicians and medical students visits each patient at the bedside. I have been able to integrate the ipad with the patient database at our hospital and can pull up X-rays, ct scans, pt charts, etc. It has been so useful in this sense and has saved my butt many times when an attending physician asks me about a lab value that I had forgotten to check.

Also, I have altered the pocket in my white coat so that the ipad can fit snugly inside. A large part of being a 3rd year medical student is WAITING around! The ipad has been so invaluable in this sense as I am able to kill time checking email, etc.

Finally, I have nearly all of my medical textbooks on the ipad and the ability to carry all these textbooks at once is truly amazing. In short, I never thought I would be using the ipad as much as I have in the past few months. My macbook sits lonely on my desk as I take my ipad with me everywhere I go. Sure it has some shortcomings, but it has made my life easier.

Ryan

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[MattIM]

My macbook sits lonely on my desk as I take my ipad with me everywhere I go. Sure it has some shortcomings, but it has made my life easier.

Ryan

Good review Ryan. Thanks for sharing your utilization of the iPad--helping you through your doctor training. I pulled your last two sentences out of your comment because I found them to be ironic. Considering that your macbook sits at home unused because your iPad is taken with you everywhere you go--which of these two machines really have the shortcomings? Priceless: "...it has made my life easier."

[p53]

I forgot to mention that at the children's hospital I rotated on, all the residents (70+) received iPad 2's from the residency director. Nearly everyone I talked to had similar experiences to me about integrating the iPad into their daily routine.

[giradman]

Hello Ryan - I enjoyed your experience w/ the iPad - I'm a newly retired Professor of Radiology (now Emeritus) - taught for 34 yrs at the Wake Forest University Medical Ctr in Piedmont, NC - wrote/edited some medical books myself; in fact, the last was on 'Basic Radiology' for medical students particularly at your level; and there is a Kindle edition available. I graduated from the U. of Michigan Medical School way back in 1971 - running around to retrieve patient lab results, review their xrays, etc. was a lot of work (and time involved). Good luck w/ your education -

[kerbausama]

Hi..did u bought All those medical books or the app?i found that it was really hard to find medical book or application for free or hacked for ipad2 64g3g..to buy those application cost lot of money..😓..thanks for sharing.

[kerbausama]

Hi..those app free or paid?

[laju22]

Hi! Thank you for sharing your experience, as I have been curious about how useful an iPad would be in medical school. What amount of memory did you get on yours? Also, did it have to be "hacked/jailbreaked" to be able to put your textbooks on it? Thank you again for your very informative post!