AirStrip: Bringing mHealth to the Desktop

(First published in MedCityNews

)In the age of the iPad in healthcare, AirStrip is taking a bold step in announcing it will develop a version of its AirStrip One mobile platform for the new Windows 8 operating system.

(First published in MedCityNews

)In the age of the iPad in healthcare, AirStrip is taking a bold step in announcing it will develop a version of its AirStrip One mobile platform for the new Windows 8 operating system.

AirStrip has joined Microsoft’s AppsForSurface initiative, which was designed to encourage software vendors to develop business and enterprise apps to run on its its Surface tablet. In the months since its release, the Surface tablet has endured criticism that it needs more apps to gain widestream adoption, and Microsoft said Monday it would offer devices and funding to a select number of software vendors as part of a larger effort to make that happen.

AirStrip, which had one of the first FDA-approved apps in the App Store back in 2009, markets a suite of mobile tools that enables the exchange of clinical information across medical devices, electronic medical records and patient monitors, and allows that data to be viewed that data on a mobile device.

Although nearly two-thirds of physicians used tablets in 2012, according to data from Manhattan Research, providers seem to prefer Apple’s mobile devices over others. So why does AirStrip have so much faith in Microsoft’s new Surface tablet, which has reportedly generated lackluster sales since its launch?

“Physicians are becoming mobile professions, and we realize that mobility has to be adopted very quickly,” CEO Alan Portela told MedCity News. While health organizations say they are beginning to move into the mobile space, many of them are still based on desktops in hospitals, clinics and offices. The challenge is that they love the look and feel of mobile software but want it to work on desktops, he said. And the new touch-friendly Windows 8.1 platform will allow AirStrip products to do just that.

Portela said the full suite of AirStrip software should be Windows 8-ready at the beginning of next year.

[Photo credit: Flickr user methodshop]