Diagnosing Which Devices Provide More for Healthcare

No healthcare provider does one thing only: Why their devices must follow suit

Medical providers, administrative staff and patients engage with various technological tools and platforms during every patient visit, and each device has the potential to act as a roadblock or fast lane for workflow.

Today's tech-savvy providers and patients expect and depend on their devices to offer a more comprehensive array of functions. IT professionals are enticed to explore zero clients — lightweight computers intended for use with server-based applications over the network — because they are inexpensive and suited for specific tasks, such as patient check-in or updating medical histories. However, these platforms do not offer the level of efficiency and broad-ranging variety of capabilities that busy healthcare professionals and patients demand. 

Full-powered clients, such as the Lenovo® ThinkCentre® M900z all-in-one-device or the Lenovo® ThinkPad® X1 Tablet, were far more effective for helping office staff add and check in new patients faster and more efficiently than a zero client, according to comparative analysis by Prowess. The study also found rich-client devices enabled physicians and technicians to view images in medical-image processing software faster, and more efficiently consult with one another than zero clients.

Although zero clients might seem like a reliable choice in the clinical setting, they do not stand up to rich-client devices for efficiency or flexibility. Ensuring a positive experience for patients, enhanced coordination and efficiency for office staff and expanded ability for collaboration among clinicians is integral to new standards for healthcare delivery today — and only rich-client devices can deliver on all of these needs.

For an in-depth look at how rich-client devices increase efficiency and effectiveness compared to zero clients, click here to download the whitepaper, "Diagnosing Which Devices Provide More for Healthcare."