Sarah Buhr, TechCrunch:

Apple has made great strides in health in the last few years and if it gets its way, there will be an iPad in the hands of every hospital patient.

And:

Earlier this week, I went down to L.A. to take a tour of Cedars-Sinai‘s pilot program allowing patients direct access to their vitals, care team and educational tools through iPads.

And:

Without the iPad, doctors and nurses have to follow a paper trail and then write up duplicate information on a white board often found on the back wall in the patient’s room. Mistakes can happen and, as Cedars-Sinai doctor Shaun Miller told me, the staff often run out of room to write, leading to confusion or a lack of information for the patient.

And:

In another section of the hospital, new parents are utilizing unmodified iPads to FaceTime with their newborns who may be sick or premature. These babies need to be kept isolated from the outside world and the germs that come with it so new parents aren’t usually able to see their baby for a few days after they are born. But, with what the nurses refer to as BabyTime (FaceTime for babies), parents can interact virtually with their little one while they wait.

Lots of upside here. I can only imagine this gathering steam as the ability grows for doctors to interact with patients remotely via their phones and tablets, perhaps with satellite devices attached to draw blood, take readings, etc.