Why doctors love Apple products and miss Steve

Apple's products have been much prized in the healthcare industry with a recent survey revealing that about 75 percent of US physicians owned an Apple device. But why are doctors so in love with Apple products and so mourn the passing of Steve Jobs? Well, MedPage blogger and an Emergency Medicine resident physician Litifat Husain gives the following three reasons.

The first reason is the simplicity of Apple products. The medical field is complicated enough as it is with doctors having to keep on top of the developments in disease pathology, mechanisms of illness, and treatments. On top of that, most of the equipment they use in the hospital setting, such as an ultrasound machine, may be proficient at what they do, but have horrendous user interfaces, making doctors appreciate even more the simplicity and ease of Apple devices.

Second reason is the solid build quality of Apple devices. Although some hospital equipment may have terrible user interfaces, when it comes to the hardware, especially in the surgical arena, it is especially fine tuned and precise. Doctors find this "medical grade" feel in Apple's devices, where precision detailing and overall design and build is superior to competitors.

And lastly, the uniformity of Apple products also attract doctors. This reason overlaps with the first in that doctors already have so much on their plate to figure out, they don't have the free time to tinker with their devices to optimize its user experience. That user experience should be optimized by the manufacturer, not the end user. Doctors believe that devices should "just work," a mantra often heard from former Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs, who intuitively understood and strove to deliver this need in user experience.

[via TUAW]