How doctors and medical students can use the Apple iPad to improve patient education

I think that physicians, nurses, and medical/nursing students have a very unique opportunity to use the Apple iPad to teach patients. Some patients are visual learners, so the use of a portable multimedia device will be an innovative and highly effective way to demonstrate certain critical elements of diseases and conditions. Instead of drawing something on the back of a paper towel, you'll now have access to rich multimedia so that you can educate your patients.

Someday, when patients are waiting in the exam room, they won't have static wall charts. They'll have interactive, multimedia screens on the walls explaining elements of anatomy, diseases, procedures, and much more. Some of this is happening in the waiting rooms and some physicians even have educational screen savers running on the computers that are in each exam room. Now, you can expect to see a docked iPad in every exam room so that the physician or nurse can quickly grab that mobile device to teach the patient. What a powerful patient education tool!