iPad and the clinical setting

Just a couple quick thoughts on this while it is in my head. If anyone has taken a look at my bio, they would see that the vast majority of my research examines the use and value of IT in a clinical (medical) setting. I've spent lots of hours observing clinicians, conducting focus groups, doing surveys, and simply talking with those in the medical community about electronic medical records, e-prescribing, personal health records and other patient management technologies. I have witnessed the transition from paper records to desktops in strategic locations, to laptops in the crook of the docs arm, to tablets, back to laptops, and sometimes back to paper (although not that often) but the thing that has me thinking is this device I'm typing on right now (the iPad). Its lightweight, it doesn't get hot, it is instantly on or off, and i think there are advantages to it being touch screen. At this point it probably only works as an ASP-based (i.e. cloud) model since it doesn't have great onboard storage capabilities, but I'm not sure that isn't the right model anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing these gadgets in doctors hands really soon.