Army considers smartphones and tablets for battlefield use

Army medics who care for soldiers wounded in combat may be joining the growing number of physicians switching to tablet devices and smartphones.

Since fall 2010, the Army has been testing a variety of mobile devices with the intention of replacing the laptops and notebook computers used by battlefield medics. After promising results from those tests, the Army may now be moving forward with deploying them.

The testing included the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, HTC EVO phone and the Samsung Epic phone. Directors of the Army's Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4), the network of battlefield health IT software and hardware systems, found that mobile electronic medical record applications show great promise running on Apple's iOS operating system and the Droid operating system using the stretch, tap and swipe functions of the devices.

The applications tested were those that allow the medics to update or access soldiers' medical records and conduct lab, radiology and pharmacy orders.

Army spokesman Matthew Hickman said that although the initial tests showed promise, there is still work to be done before they can be deployed. He said myriad hurdles must be cleared, including encryption requirements and use of wireless networks, before they could get final approval.

Currently, medics working remotely in the battlefield enter data on a laptop or handheld device. When they arrive at a location with Internet connectivity, they transfer the data to the soldiers' permanent medical record. Because of security concerns, the Justice Dept. has not yet approved the use of wireless connectivity on devices used by medics in the battlefield. If approved, the use of smartphones and tablets on a secure Wi-Fi or cellular network would allow the transfer of data to be made in real time.

This convenience and ease of use have the majority of civilian physicians interested in smartphones and tablets. A study released in June by QuantiaMD, an online learning collaborative, found that 83% of physicians use some kind of mobile device capable of downloading apps. Seventy-nine percent said they owned either an iPhone or an Android smartphone; 32% owned either an iPad or an Android tablet.

According to an article in the Federal Times, limited deployment of the devices could begin as early as December if full approval is granted.