UPMC to Deploy Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tablets Across Its Health System

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has committed to deploy at least 2,000 Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets throughout its healthcare system, according to a report in MobiHealthNews. The system’s clinicians will use the tablets as laptop replacements. The devices will be equipped with the healthcare system’s Convergence app, which sits atop its Cerner and Epic deployments and knits together many of its legacy hospital IT systems. UPMC has been running a pilot in the cardiology department of the health system’s Presbyterian Hospital, which will now be expanded system-wide.

Dr. Rasu Shrestha, vice president of medical information technology at UPMC, explains that the Surface Pro 3’s form factor and the Convergence software, which UPMC is co-developing with Microsoft, offers both flexibility and easy access to disparate clinical information systems. He explains that the tablet, together with the software allows the clinician to use the Surface Pro 3 on the desk for charting, or it can accompany the clinician while on rounds; the Clinician can access the hospital system’s Cerner or Epic electronic medical record systems with a simple “swipe” of the screen.