The hot-swap capability means that a device includes two high-capacity battery packs, not merely a main battery and a small “bridge” battery. This allows users to change a battery without having to turn the power off or reboot the system, extending running time. Plus, it removes the burden of having to swap your main battery in a very short time, which is not always practical. Using a battery charger, you can keep spares fully charged and take them with you. In situations where you can’t run on AC power or recharge batteries, this reserve power can make a significant difference.

In today’s business landscape, the mobile professional category represents a new opportunity and challenge. According to the Yankee Group, mobile professionals represent 46% of all mobile workers and that percentage will continue to grow. The analyst firm’s “Mobile Outlook 2011,” found that roughly one-third of all employees in U.S. businesses can be considered mobile, spending at least 20% of their time away from the primary office or workspace. As a result, it is common for these users to sacrifice either weight or battery life in order to use a mobile computer for extended periods of time.

Standard batteries – in many cases – are light in weight but often deliver poor life. As a result, mobile professionals are forced to use long-life batteries to meet their needs for extended uptime. These extended-life batteries, which I refer to as Goiter batteries, impact the device’s weight and also its footprint – making that small and light laptop larger and heavier. And, because they extend beyond the laptop’s case, these larger batteries offer an increased opportunity for failure.

To resolve this conflict, Panasonic has applied its hot-swappable twin battery design to the business-rugged Toughbook C1 convertible tablet to enable extended battery life and light weight for mobile professionals. With two batteries, the Toughbook C1 can run for about 10 hours and only weighs 3.7 pounds. However, if the extra battery life is not needed, the C1 ships with a dummy pack and can run for five hours on a single battery, which decreases the weight to a phenomenal 3.2 pounds.

With traditional notebooks, replacing a battery requires the PC to be powered down and rebooted. This downtime can be detrimental for many mobile professionals, such as pharmaceutical sales representatives who frequently spend long hours waiting to present the latest drugs and equipment to doctors. This window of opportunity is often a matter of minutes; therefore, it’s essential to have the computer running at all times.

For nurses or other mobile workers that select a device from a number of units on a charging rack, Panasonic has designed the C1 to clearly indicate up to four charge levels at the front edge of the case. At a quick glance, you can tell how much power each battery has. Without this feature, machines would be selected at random. If a device with a low charge was chosen, the battery could die during offsite duties – resulting in significant downtime and lost productivity.  Of course, the ability to swap in a charged spare could help mitigate that.

When evaluating mobile devices, we recommend closely examining battery life. Devices with standard batteries that do not offer significant life should not even be considered.  In today’s mobile world, a laptop should be able to achieve six to eight hours of life without having to use an extended-life battery. In addition, notebooks that offer twin hot-swappable batteries allow users to truly take advantage of mobility. More information on Panasonic’s hot-swappable battery technology can be found here.

The topic of tablet computers in healthcare has received an enormous amount of attention since the introduction of Apple’s iPad and tablets using Windows 7. While demand for mobile devices in the healthcare market is growing, there is still no one perfect solution for healthcare users – and there never will be. Radiologists have different needs than surgeons and nurses have different needs than phlebotomists. If your goal is to improve patient safety and workflow, then you’ll need to find devices that work best for each user.

This sudden swell of interest in tablets merits a discussion of issues healthcare organizations should consider when looking for a tablet of any kind. Before deploying a tablet, you must consider a number of factors, including ergonomics, connectivity, durability, security, vendor experience, service and support, functionality and the ability to repeatedly sanitize the device.  These will all impact the success of the deployment.  The worst thing you can do is just look at price!

Ergonomics
Ergonomics is a critical consideration for a tablet.  If a clinician is going to carry a device all day, it needs to be lightweight and easy to hold for long periods of time.  Years of working with healthcare professionals resulted in Panasonic designing a “hand-free” ergonomic strap and dome hand support system that cradles the hand for comfortable long-term use.  You can see this technology in many of our devices.  When considering a tablet, I encourage you to look at the ergonomics of the design and to have clinicians consider this element as part of the testing process.

Connectivity
Tablets are designed to facilitate mobility, but the true benefits of mobility can only be achieved with connectivity.  Most healthcare facilities gain connectivity via Wi-Fi, but home health workers may require mobile broadband.  When looking at a tablet’s connectivity, consider its ability to capture a signal in fringe areas.  Most devices will have a clear signal near a router or cell tower, but how strong is the connection as you move them away from an access point?  Wireless testing is simple and often overlooked.  It’s common to blame the wireless network when you can’t get a signal, but often it’s the device.

Durability
In Panasonic’s experience, healthcare customers are some of the most demanding. This highly mobile and dynamic work environment often leads to dropped devices.  As a result, durability is a chief consideration for tablets. Fragility is not an option when your work is mission critical.

For those considering the new iPad, I’d point to a recent article from PC World.  The title – iPad Stress Tests: Buy a Case and Don’t Drop It – says it all.  At the end of the day, if you can’t rely on a computer to operate after an inevitable drop or spill, then your ability to transform your workflow is significantly reduced.  Be sure to ask about the drop rating (for both the device and hard drive) for the tablets you are considering.

It’s worth noting that the average annual total cost of ownership (TCO) of a ruggedized notebook is 40% lower than the average TCO of a non-rugged device, according to VDC Research. So purchasing a consumer-grade product and trying to make it work in a demanding enterprise environment is probably not the best solution.

Security
Security is crucial in a healthcare environment. Having options such as fingerprint scanners and smartcard readers, paired with bios-level security technology like Computrace, is critical. If mobile devices don’t offer these options, you need to consider if they’ll provide the appropriate level of HIPAA compliance.

Expertise
Since the announcement of the Recovery Act in February of 2009, we have seen a lot of interest in the healthcare market from technology companies.  When considering a tablet, make sure you are working with a vendor that has substantial healthcare market experience. Lack of domain expertise can significantly complicate your launch efforts.  You need a partner that can provide support from the evaluation process well into the deployment, not someone that will simply sell you a device.

Service & Support
Many new tablet products on the market are not replacements for current technology, rather an extra device for an IT department to manage.  Multiple devices running different operating systems can complicate IT management issues.  Also, since many new tablet devices will be widely available through consumer channels, it’s likely physicians will purchase their own, bring them into the hospital and ask for IT support.  We saw this very phenomenon in commercial markets with the iPhone.  This forced IT departments to debate the pros and cons associated with having an “our technology only” rule versus a more open policy.

You should also consider the availability of software written for the device.  In particular, how many full EMR applications are written for the platform?

Functionality
Although I stated earlier that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in the healthcare market, you definitely want to avoid devices that are one-dimensional. The ideal tablet (convertible or slate) allows clinicians to accomplish as much as possible with a single device.  A well designed, lightweight convertible tablet can serve as both a physician’s desktop computer and hand-held tablet for rounds and patient interactions.  Mobile Clinical Assistants (MCAs) have integrated features such as barcode scanners, RFID readers and cameras to improve point-of-care productivity.  Not all tablets can serve multiple roles or even allow for multi-tasking – something the demanding physicians we work with have come to expect as the price of entry.  A well designed tablet will allow your staff to maximize productivity while limiting the number of devices your IT department needs to support.

Sanitization
Since hospital equipment must be frequently sanitized, choosing a tablet that can be repeatedly cleaned is another key factor to evaluate during the purchase process.  If not properly designed, screen viewability could significantly degrade after repeated sanitization.  It’s good to ask what sort of testing has been done in this area, and if the device is IP (ingress protection) rated.

The move towards EMRs and the abundance of mobile computing solutions coming to market make it an exciting time to be in the healthcare IT business.  Pure tablets like the MCA (including our Toughbook H1 Health), along with new generations of convertible tablets running Windows 7, are generating a lot of interest.  Devices like the iPad will push the market forward and keep tablets at the forefront of the healthcare mobility discussion.  But before you make a decision, step back and thoroughly evaluate your options.  The wrong choice can have long-term ramifications for both the quality of patient care and bottom line performance.

Clearly today, with devices like the Apple iPad generating a lot of media attention, tablets computers (convertibles or slates) may be turning a corner.  Still, I’m amazed that in the digital age, more people take notes with pen and paper than digitally. I see this even with younger professionals who grew up with digital technology.

Why is this?  Let’s face it; we have been hearing about the pen revolution since the 80s.  Technologies like the PenPoint OS and Windows for Pen Computing and devices like the Momenta tablet or the DynaPad were early attempts to make pen computing a mainstream reality.  Well, it’s 2010 and the use of tablet computers is still a niche market- at best.

There are a number of reasons we have never been able to fully make this transition.  Weight has always been an issue, with early devices simply too heavy to carry around for long periods of time.  Battery life has also been a factor.  You can’t realize the benefits of mobility if you need to be tethered to a power supply because your device only gets a couple hours of battery life. Performance has also been an issue.  In many cases, tablets didn’t provide the desktop experience, resulting in the need for two devices – a tablet for mobility and a desktop for performance. Durability has been an obvious shortcoming in this space.  Today we see an industry average failure rate of 22% for notebook computers used in a business environment.  When it comes to tablets, most vendors take one of these business notebook models and simply add a hinge that allows the screen to swivel and lay flat. Obviously, when you place a device that already has a high failure rate in an environment that is even more mobile, it’s highly likely your failure rate will increase. Ergonomics is another area that has slowed the adoption of the tablet platform.  I challenge you to find a tablet computer that has taken into account that people might need to carry and hold the device for long periods of time.  Rather than engineering a device that is optimized for a tablet environment, notebook vendors have asked users to take their modified notebooks and make do.  There are certainly other reasons that can be pointed to, but I believe these are major contributors to the lack of tablet adoption.

For tablet computers to be adopted in an enterprise environment, they need to address all these issues. At Panasonic, we feel we’ve done this with the new Toughbook® C1.  At a scant 3.2 lbs., the Toughbook C1 is the world’s lightest (by a healthy margin) 12.1” convertible tablet and offers up to ten hours of battery life, an Intel® Core™ i5 processor (for desktop performance) and the Toughbook brand’s legendary durability. An integrated hand strap system perfectly balances the tablet in the palm of one hand for effortless long-term use in tablet mode. When you add features like twin hot-swappable batteries, Gobi2000™ mobile broadband, multiple data input options, a quick release 250GB shock mounted HDD, a fingerprint scanner and smartcard reader, it’s clear the C1 may be the ideal tablet for highly mobile professionals.

2010 could be a turning point for the tablet computer and the Toughbook C1 convertible a major contributing factor.  It may finally be time to retire all those notepads and complete your own digital transformation.

Go to www.toughbook.com for more information on the Toughbook C1 and check out a selection of Toughbook C1 videos on our YouTube channel.