Aviation and Medical Apps for Tablet Use in Aviation and Medicine
My hobby is aviation and flying. I therefore either work or play in two of the most highly federal-regulated industries. In this context, I couldn't help but notice the wide divergence in the use of relatively new medical apps and aviation apps for tablet technology use in these two industries. In the aviation world, computer tablet technology has been fully embraced and there has been a rapid uptake of its use in the cockpit. In the area of clinical trials there is a paucity of use, although in medicine in general there has been a fast uptake See my previous blog post on "Clinical Apps for iPad and Tablet Use in Medicine and Clinical Trials" for lists of apps and other links.
Why the difference in tablet use between aviation apps and medical apps?
Aviation Apps
First, in the aviation world, pilots are generally those that like technology and have been used to having new technology in the cockpit. The "glass cockpit" has been around for many years and available in general aviation for pilots like me for at least 10 years. Therefore the technology hurdle is much lower. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has been open to the acceptance of this new technology, with the proper testing and back up. An example of this is that United Airlines is now issuing all their pilots iPADs for all their charts. It saves over 35 pounds of weight in the cockpit, an estimated 326,000 gallons of jet fuel a year and they can easily be updated. They have already recognized the cost savings and the ability to keep their pilots updated through the use of aviation apps. With everything electronic in the cockpit there has to be redundancy – commercial aviation has a tremendous safety record in part because of all the back-up systems and redundancy. Therefore the initial reaction was that there had to be paper back up.....fortunately in the aviation world this is not the case.....just carry along a second fully charged iPAD.
Clinical Apps and Medical Apps for Clinical Trials
In the clinical trials arena, I hardly expected a fast uptake, since it has only been since 2008 that the majority of clinical trials have moved away from paper CRF's and use an EDC platform. Technology has not been at the forefront of the pharmaceutical drug development process, although we are starting to see this on the horizon. This is in part due to the duration of clinical programs – it is difficult to switch platforms mid-stream and the back end data integration becomes an issue. It is also very expensive to introduce a new technology such as a clinical or medical app for tablet use, especially in the current environment of austerity where cost is the predominant driver, regardless of the potential advantages. With that said, BioClinica, being a leader in technology development, has recognized an uptick in interest and adoption of new technologies demonstrated by the success of a number of our recent product introductions.
So what is my favorite aviation app? Difficult to say –there are many of them, but I do like the new GPS systems for the general aviation pilot. For $99 you can buy a GPS receiver, which communicated via Bluetooth to the iPAD if it has installed the aviation maps, can provide full GPS capabilities with the tablet. As for my backup – I have a panel mounted older GPS and the older VOR's and maps in my flight bag (OK, I have not yet bought the second iPAD for backup!). I'll offer opinions on some clinical apps and medical apps for tablet use in my future blogs. Stay tuned…