After Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died Wednesday, leaders in the technology and health care industries offered their reflections about how Jobs influenced the health care sector, Healthcare IT News reports.
Leaders Comment on Jobs' Death
U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra said that Jobs was "a true visionary."
John Halamka, CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said, "In some ways, his death seems like Faustian bargain -- revolutionize the world with products beyond our imagination, then die too young" (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 10/6).
Jobs' Impact on Health Care
Jobs helped spearhead the 2007 release of Apple's iPhone, which helped transform the mobile device market.
An April survey by Aptilon found that 84% of physicians now use smartphones. The survey also found that 61% of medical smartphone users plan to start using an iPhone by the end of this year.
Apple's iPad tablet computer also is expected to influence the health care industry. A recent survey by Knowledge Networks and the Physicians Consulting Network found that about 27% of doctors own an iPad or a similar device, an adoption rate that is about five times higher than among the general population (Health Data Management, 10/6).
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, noted earlier this week that the 80% of the "top hospitals" in the nation now are either testing or piloting the iPad for clinical purposes. He said hospitals are using the tool "to access patient records, to review medical images [and] to administer bedside care" (Healthcare IT News, 10/6).