We'd heard the rumors that Apple was working to take advantage of the fact that so many physicians have spent their own money on iPhones. We knew that Apple had convened a meeting among a number of healthcare software companies in Chicago a month or two ago. Now, courtesy of The Medical Quack blog, we learn that the company has turned to its Silicon Valley base--Stanford Hospital and Clinics--to test a mobile version of the Epic Systems EHR.
Apple's a company that doesn't make many public statements until it's ready to introduce a new product with a splashy launch event. Privately held Epic is about as media-averse as a company gets, plus it, you know, has this huge share of the EHR market for large institutions, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. So it makes sense that the two would work together on a project they're trying to keep under the radar. Now if only we could get some confirmation on the reports that Apple is working on a tablet computer that would incorporate many of the features that has made the iPhone so popular.
For more information on this Epic-Apple collaboration at Stanford:
- check out this Medical Quack blog post