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iPads do not impress residents

Residency Program Insider, November 22, 2013

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Despite the hype, residents don’t find iPads especially useful.

Residents at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, didn’t think the sleek tablets were valuable tools for clinical rounds, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine.

For the study, researchers surveyed about 100 residents who received iPads. About 30% of residents said they thought the iPads were a useful clinical tool, although only about 17% said they used their iPads during rounds. About 8% said they believed iPads increased efficiency for writing progress notes.

Residents in surgery and OB-GYN programs gave iPads lower ratings than residents in medicine-based programs. Only about 7% of surgery and OB-GYN residents used their iPads during clinical rounds. About 7% of the same group said they found iPads to be useful clinical tools.

Residents found iPads valuable as an educational tool. Almost 60% of residents reported using their iPads outside the hospital to read articles and research topics.

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