Tablets becoming technology of choice for healthcare providers

Doctors and nurses are quickly gravitating toward tablet computers, embracing the new mobile technology for its convenient portability and ability to help providers improve patient care on a variety of levels.

New technologies are constantly penetrating the healthcare industry, but tablet computers have experienced a growth only rarely seen before. Marketing news provider Mediapost goes so far as to call tablet computers "as disruptive as X-rays."

Mediapost highlights the tablet's low power consumption as one advantage that healthcare providers can appreciate. The device's ability to connect to the internet from virtually anywhere also makes it a handy tool to carry between patient rooms and other areas of the hospital.

"[I]t's not about enabling healthcare professionals to perform this or that task better; rather, it's about their effectiveness across the board by enabling them to gather and access essential medical information faster, whenever and wherever they need it," Mediapost's Larry Mickelberg writes, regarding tablets.

Tablets have proven popular in several industries, but healthcare has been among the most enthusiastic. Illustrating the tablet's growing success in healthcare, a study from Research2Guidance projects that health-related mobile apps will reach $1.3 billion in 2012.