It’s Friday, March 11, and the new iPad 2 is here. With every new iToy or gizmo introduced to the market, I find myself, like many of us, wondering about its potential impact on healthcare. Even The Advisory Board reported on Wednesday about the transformative power of tablet computers. They mentioned studies that have shown widespread adoption of these gadgets by clinicians and facility managers.

Tablets are being put to use for many purposes—there are a plethora of applications that can be utilized in the healthcare workplace. I’ve written previously on the HKS Smart Healthcare blog about apps that physicians and nurses are finding useful, as well as apps that are enhancing the patient experience. This new wave of touch technology will affect healthcare design; it is already affecting it, in fact.

I wonder what a hospital will look like in five, 10, or 15 years with the incorporation of these technologies?