According to Dow Jones, an iPad arms race is under way for the healthcare industry among providers and medical device manufacturers. At a company conference in late 2010, Boston Scientific Chief Executive Ray Elliott explained why the company purchased thousands of iPads at a time of cost-cutting. “We’re beginning the process for our sales force of downloading more than 20 specific product apps and opportunity to get into pricing, time efficiency, expense reports, filling out requests and all the other things that we manage to do to take time away from the sales force,” Elliott said. Mr. Elliott is stepping down as CEO at the end of 2011, but his spearheading of the iPad for Boston Scientific’s enterprise is acknowledged to be a major contribution by many healthcare and medical industry experts.
The iPad is proving its value across many enterprises. Eighty-six percent of the Fortune 500 is deploying or testing iPad applications, an increase of 75 percent over the last quarter. Almost half (47 percent) of the Global 500 is deploying or testing iPad apps. “If you look at technology adoption in general in health care, we see a huge ramp,” said Randall Porter, VP of healthcare solutions for AT&T.
Boston Scientific is also developing iPad apps as a product for healthcare industry customers. One new iPad app Boston Scientific recently introduced is DrawMD, which allows physicians to draw or stamp on detailed anatomy images, directly showing patient treatments or procedures. DrawMD apps are available for urology, anesthesia and critical care, and orthopedics. New apps for cardiology, general surgery and many other specialties or practice areas are coming soon.
Is the iPad just the latest new technology, or is it really a game-changer for the healthcare/medical industry? If medical sales reps can’t get access to physicians, they aren’t likely to make any sales. By using similar tools and methods to their customers, medical sales reps stand a much better chance of establishing a strong relationship. The iPad “arms race” is all about time and relevance. The best iPad apps will allow sales reps to focus on their core job of selling and acting as subject-matter experts for your medical device or product. ISM has developed an offline mobile app for the iPad. It is designed to allow users to access their Salesforce data while on the road where internet access can be sketchy at best. Even when they are offline, it’s business as usual when using this offline iPad app.
Please visit our iPad Open Development Program page to see the benefits your company could obtain from being a part of this powerful community. Submit product feedback, influence feature development and vote for what matters most to you for Mobile CRM HD for Salesforce, the offline iPad app. We also offer an offline iPad app for our Medical Sales CRM product, you can download this free Medical Sales CRM iPad app from iTunes today!
For more information on the iPad apps we are developing, please visit our Mobile CRM page. Or Contact Us via email (info at ismsystems.com) and/or call us at 877-553-0485.