Healthcare tablet market to hit $1.7B this year

The global market for tablet PC devices in healthcare is expected to increase to $1.7 billion for 2013, reflecting an increase of nearly 27 percent over the prior year, according to Kalorama Information.   

In a new report, "The Market for Tablet PCs in Healthcare," the healthcare market research publisher said several factors are driving the growth of this market including a shortage of qualified medical professionals, cost restraints, medical error reduction measures, expanding capabilities of devices and off-site medical care.  

Kalorama’s estimate included sales for tablet devices, including hybrid and convertible tablets, where medical professionals or institutions have used these devices for at least 50 percent health-related use. The report says that revenue growth will remain strong. The increasing adoption of tablets in the health industry will drive developers/manufacturers to continue to rollout new, advanced products, securing a healthy market for upgrades and replacement units.

“Tablet PCs are increasingly being used for a variety of tasks in the health field including access to patient records at the point of care, improved viewing capabilities for medical images and easy offsite patient monitoring,” said Melissa Elder, Kalorama analyst and the author of the report.

Viewing radiology images, ordering e-prescriptions and filling out a patient’s electronic record are among the tasks that physicians and other healthcare professionals are using tablet PCs for in a healthcare setting, according to the report.  

The report says that Apple’s iPad has continued to grab a larger share of the market each year, but that there are other competitors interested in the healthcare market, such as Samsung, Research in Motion (BlackBerry), Panasonic, Hewlett Packard, Motion Computing, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Tangent and others, though all are struggling to keep pace with the adoption rate of Apple.