In the linked article Dr Kim lays out why Windows 8 is a great choice for healthcare. While the article identifies valid points for Windows 8, there are several reasons why healthcare is not ready for Windows 8 which are laid out below.
- EMR, PACs, and other clinical vendors have not either validated their products on Windows 8 or do not have a road map to make their compatible.
- Lack of “True” mobile EMR apps for the Surface RT device and also the lack of RT devices themselves.
- Certain enterprise antivirus & disk encryption vendors do not have working versions for Windows 8.
- Legacy VPN & SSL clients do not work on Windows 8.
- The Citrix client which delivers application access for a lot of healthcare applications is less than desirable on Windows 8.
- Microsoft Server 2012 needs to be in place on enterprise domain controllers to take advantage of group policy on Windows 8.
- Implementing Direct Access" requires additional infrastructure for enterprises that may already have a remote connectivity solution in place.
- Implementing “BitLocker’ requires additional infrastructure be in place that some healthcare entities may not have or have another solution already in place.
- A lot of healthcare organizations are still running Windows XP and making the jump to Windows 8 is too much of a change and they are focusing on Windows 7.
- The training costs associated with Windows 8 due to the new interface and navigation of the operating system.
Based upon some available roadmaps the majority of healthcare applications will be ready for Windows 8 by the end of 2013. Maybe by then healthcare IT shops should consider WIndows 8 over Windows 7.
justdothebasics.com 