My name is Marc Chasin, M.D. My wife and myself are Family Physicians in NY. We are currently working in an office with paper charts and plan to go out on our own within the year. However I am interested in purchasing a tablet PC for myself prior to that. I was wondering if there is any benefit to me using the tablet prior to use with an EMR, or are ther uses/application available that can be utilized on the tablet without the use of an EMR. Or should I just wait until I have my EMR functional.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Marc Chasin, M.D.

For physicians who are planning on using tablet PC's in practice, I believe there are some values to using them prior to implementing an EMR.

First getting use to the pen/stylus as an input device takes a little practice. Holding the pen upright and pressing with a steady stroke and trying to be legible helps a lot.

Upgrading to the latest Windows XP service pack adds significantly to recognition accuracy and improves the input panel.

Building a medical vocabulary for the tablet as well as Microsoft Word (if you intend to use that as your word processor) is a major benefit.

By the way, I am a Pediatrician in a solo practice who has been using a tablet PC wirelessly connected to the front desk computer and the back office laptop with a primitive EMR that I composed from Microsoft Office components: Outlook for appointments, Word for patient progress notes (using templates created for typical visits), Excel for Growth Charts and various tracking issues. I also receive all faxes in the Front Desk computer's fax inbox (avoiding printing spam and storing in the patient's EMR ( a folder with the patient's name and birthdate as well as nested folders for information, growth charts, progress notes,telephone calls, lab and xray results). Initially I have used a hard copy of the data in a real paper chart while I am transitioning old charts to EMR (scanning in all prior paper records). My experience with this project has covered 6 months of real time use plus 4-5 months of prior tablet use.

Best wishes with your new practice!

Bob Langston MD