Ultra-Mobile PC’s would be great in medical applications. I think they would lend themselves to a unified patient records information system. Doctors and nurses alike would benefit from the take-it-anywhere, smaller form factor. In the medical field information is a big problem, I’m sure you’ve seen the news on it, and it isn’t getting much better. What I often wonder is whether a product like Microsoft’s Origami is the solution, but I tend to lean more towards the software, networks, and security protocols as the bigger issue. Hardware has little to do with the overall picture.

Typically medical professionals are good at what they do, medicine, which doesn’t include information technology. No one expects medical personnel to be good at IT, but everyone expects someone to be good at it for everyone’s benefit. Not to say that medical IT people are not cutting it, they are top notch. A lot of problems stem from budget concerns, and thus older technology is used way too long, which in turn requires more IT people to manage it, and more money to hire them which is the problem in the first place.

Will Origami and the likes of it help the medical profession? Perhaps it will lend a hand, especially with the current major paradigm shift from wired to wireless. This kind of connectivity allows easier access, and may alleviate some of the headaches associated with information not being where it needs to be and when. Maybe UMPC’s won’t be the end of this problem for medical professionals, but at last now you can move information with you wherever you go, which is a step in the right direction.