Clinic Office Tablet and iPad Usage

[ttaylor]

This is a development of this support question

Re: Hosted edition - how does it work?
by roelofwielinga » January 11th, 2011, 10:10 pm

That's the white document with some green 'ticks', some squares and no text (MAC).

IE: YES!! So hosted edition: ClinicOffice is accessible from any computer which has an internet connection. We recommend a Windows PC but you could also use an Apple Mac or Linux computer. Would a mobile phone be possible? Or an Ipad? Or a WEpad?
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To which the answer was:-

Any device that is capable of running Windows Remote Desktop can use the Hosted Edition. However, please note that the minimum recommended screen resolution for ClinicOffice is 1024x768.

Even though it will work on a device with a smaller screen size (e.g. an iPad) this is not recommended as you don't get a very good user experience.ClinicOffice Support Team
Support
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iPad and Tablet Usage
We look upon this slightly differently. We agree that sceen sizes and resolution make iPads a poor choice for your core interactions with Clinic Office. However for patient interaction just before and during treatment they have a lot to offer regarding access to patient visual notes etc over a wifi connection. So we are not talking massive data base interrogation, reporting or payments management but the ability to look at patient notes and see next possible appointment date. Use of a terminal and keyboard during a treatment session is poor patient interaction. But using an iPad instead of paper notes and clipboard could enhance the interaction. Particularly as you can now review MRI and other scanning images on the same device.

So enhancement request is for the next version of Clinic Office to have a tablet or "lite" option optimised to do this.

Tony Taylor
ESO Maidstone

[Support]

Hi Tony - thanks for your post.

There's nothing to stop you using an iPad (or any other tablet or mobile device). You can read the patient notes, look at their appointment history, view visual notes, image attachments etc. etc.

>> So enhancement request is for the next version of Clinic Office
>> to have a tablet or "lite" option optimised to do this.

What exactly are the 'optimisations' that you require?

[ttaylor]

Optimisation for Pad computers

For iPads this is really about following the guidelines from Apple:-
No use of Flash
Enable touch sceen navigation to move around the screen including zoom.
Ease of use on individual screens (bigger touch buttons) for
Working screens with everything you need in one place (rather than Windows model with large complex screens with all the options avaialble as drop downs)
Apple talk about optimising each screen for its primary task so that is satisfying and enjoyable to use
Help documents as searchable ebooks

[roelofwielinga]

I totally underline the statement of ttaylor, but I would like to add the ability to quick make some notes with a stylus.
NO keyboard BETWEEN me and my patient.

[Support]

Hi Tony - thanks for your comments...

>> For iPads this is really about following the guidelines from Apple:-
>> No use of Flash
That's not going to happen. As a Microsoft development company, the UI guidelines we follow are from Microsoft. We specifically don't target any platform other than Windows. The only reason ClinicOffice even works on any Apple hardware at all, is because Apple now supports MS Windows (both natively and via Remote Desktop).

(As a side point it's pretty widely recognised that Apple's glaring omission of Flash support is absurd given how ubiquitous the Flash platform is across all IT business sectors. The argument that "HTML5 will replace Flash" will likely prove to be only partially true at best and Flash will be around for a very a long time.)

>> Enable touch sceen navigation to move around the screen including zoom.
This has absoutely nothing to do with the software - this is purely to do with your hardware, your operating system and/or the Remote Desktop implementation you use - none of which we have any control over.

>> Ease of use on individual screens (bigger touch buttons) for
>> Working screens with everything you need in one place (rather than
>> Windows model with large complex screens with all the options avaialble as drop downs)
In the fullness of time, we will most likely introduce a simplified UI with larger buttons for easier touchscreen functionality.

>> Apple talk about optimising each screen for its primary task
>> so that is satisfying and enjoyable to use
This is a highly-subjective and grossly generic design goal. What does a "satisfying" screen look like? How does one make a screen "enjoyable" to use? How many focus groups of what size do you need to reach a consensus? What percentage should find a given screen "satisfying and enjoyable" before that screen is acceptable?

After several decades of software development, we've got a pretty good idea of how to develop a good UI and our feedback from users is that the ClinicOffice UI is already intuitive and easy to use. In fact, it's the UI which tends win people over to choosing ClinicOffice in the first place. Is there something specific which you are finding problematic?

>> Help documents as searchable ebooks
We already have a searchable help forum, searchable PDFs and a printed user guide - why do we need to introduce eBooks? 99% of PCs will have a PDF reader installed - how many have an eBook reader installed? I don't understand - sorry.


I wonder if there has been some confusion on this topic? As mentioned earler, please bear in mind that we do not develop software for Apple hardware. To re-write ClinicOffice for Apple MAC (or Apple's iOS) would require us (a) to employ new programmers (b) to completely re-write 100,000s lines of code (c) to train (or employ) support staff for Apple devices. The cost of this would be exorbitant and in all honesty, the current demand for ClinicOffice-related development (in Windows) is so high that we're already working at full capacity.

@Roelof:
>> I would like to add the ability to quick make some notes with a stylus.
>> NO keyboard BETWEEN me and my patient
Once again - this is a feature of your hardware and operating system. If your device has a stylus and handwriting recognition, then what you write will be translated into text and automatically inserted into ClinicOffice. There is nothing that we can do to about this.


I hope this helps to clarify our position. The short answer is that once we've finished the Online Diary Module (nearly done) and then ClinicOffice v5 (a couple of months away from completion), then a simplified UI for touch-screen devices which will enhance the user experience on any touch-screen device (including the iPad) is on the cards. However, our roots, experience and expertise are in Windows development and that is very unlikely to change in the future.

Hope this helps!

[ttaylor]

I have been resisting the temptation to kick this thread off again, it is one which could run and run.

So my last few items of clarrification then I promise to shut up on this topic:-

1) Very happy to know that Clinic Office is to remain built aroung the Microsoft Windows .NET C# platform. The Development Strategy for Clinic Office seems to me to be a good one. I look forward to the arrival of Clinic Office Version 5 soon (with PowerPivot eventually!) then the simplified interface compatable with Pads I think is a good one.

2) I agree that Apple not using Flash is a political gesture. On the other hand not using it saves a lot of resource and most of the big multi media sites "UTube" "iPlayer" seem to work fine on the iPad without it. So most of the time it seems to offer little advantage and does seem to be noticably less popular on the commercial web sites.

3) eBooks these are really a step beyond PDF's. The best of them use hyperlinks to navigate to detailed explanations of an issue complete together with links to help videos on uTube. ("Pivot Table Data Cruncing: Micorsoft Excel 2010" on the Mr Excel Library kindle edition is a good example I have just purchased. Although the video links are anoying when WiFi is not avaialble). Really just a note that the world moves on.

4) Stylus on the iPad suggested by Roelof. Not a great fan myself, I am remarkable comfortable typing on glass. But there are "inductive stylus" for the iPad that work on the touch screen just like your finger but without all the greasy finger prints. So I can see some benefit.

Tony Taylor
Maidstone

[Support]

Thanks for your comments Tony. I think this has been exhausted now so I've locked the thread.