I recently heard of a laptop that may have been designed for clinical use instead of taking current technology and trying to make it work.
H1 Toughbook
The new Panasonic Toughbook H1 looks to be a sturdy, efficient, hygienic laptop. Gizmodo just posted this description:
…Panasonic’s H1 Toughbook for clinical use is out, and its specs list is impressive. It’s water-, dust- and drop-proof from 3-feet, has a smooth-surface and with sealed buttons for hygiene, and is fanless. It’s got a six-hour battery life, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, an in-built RFID reader, 2-megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual LED lighting, barcode reader, smart-card and fingerprint readers and optional GPS. Specifically it’s designed to manage patient notes and collect information to simplify and speed up hospital procedures…
Not sure what to think about a laptop from Panasonic…though my TV, VCR and DVD player have been reliable for many years.
I also see that not too long ago Motion upgraded their C5 Tablet PC including a new solid state drive (SSD) and integrated mobile broadband. While it looks promising, I can’t say I’ve seen them all over the medical center yet. Anyone actually hear of or see someone using these?
I haven’t seen these before, but I have the impression that Panasonic notebooks are fairly respected. The Toughbook series has earned accolades for being, well, tough. I’m interested in fanless designs and expect now that the clock speed war nonsense has abated people are starting to value cool, quite, low energy devices. I wonder if the growth of mobile clinical devices represent any specific HIPA challenges.