Microsoft has announced that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) will purchase 2,000 of its Surface Pro 3 tablets to be used by its doctors in combination with its own Convergence application.
Rebecca Kaul, the President of UPMC's Technology Development Center, states that they tried to develop their Convergence app, which offers its doctors access to information about their patients, for the iPad. However, she says that after a year of work, UMPC discovered that it would not work well in their setting, due to the need to interact with its legacy systems.
Kaul said:
The doctors who tried it loved the visualizations our developers came up with, but they balked when told the iPad app would be read-only and that they would still have to go back to their EHR to record data. They'd either have to go to their desktop or, at best, open up a Citrix session from the iPad, log in, and navigate to the right section of the EHR to log the data.
Those issues don't turn up when using Windows 8.1 combined with the Surface Pro 3. Kaul stated that they picked Microsoft's product because it had the right size and form factor, and it could also be disinfected, which is certainly a good thing when used in a hospital.
Dr. Rasu Shrestha of UPMC adds:
When we're rounding, we're able to undock our Surface devices and carry them around as tablets and really have all the information present to us at the touch of our fingertips. Our Convergence platform on the Surface device brings the patients' stories to life, and enables superb user experience interoperability and optimal workflow between the tablet and the electronic medical records.
Microsoft won't officially start shipping the Surface Pro 3 until June 20. However, it has announced that many large companies such as Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton, and BMW already have plans to deploy the 12-inch tablet.
What do you think about Microsoft being able to convince big businesses and organizations to purchase large shipments of the Surface Pro 3 even before it's officially released?
Source: Microsoft
