Dell is planning to market its tiny Android Streak computer to doctors and hospitals as a way of making greater inroads in the lucrative healthcare vertical, reports ZDNet's Larry Dignan. Healthcare is leading the pack among industries adopting tablet computers, he writes. 

Doctors have been showing considerable interest in the iPad, but Dell plans to integrate its tablet into a bundle of software, gear and services that operate together in the highly regulated atmosphere of healthcare. The company will soon offer the 5-inch Streak, which conveniently fits into a lab coat, as one component of its electronic medical record and mobile clinical computing suites.  

"Dell has the opportunity to make the Streak a quasi-BlackBerry in healthcare," Dignan writes. "Consumerization could catch up to the Streak at some point, but Dell could have a nice running start before it does."

The Streak could be used not only by health care providers, but also by patients who could combine it with medical devices so that their health could be monitored remotely, reports InformationWeek's Marianne Kolbasuk McGee. One possibility under development is a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff designed like a wristwatch, which if used in conjunction with the Streak could enable patients to send blood pressure data to their providers.

For more:
- see Larry Dignan's post at ZDNet
- see Marianne Kolbasuk McGee's article at InformationWeek

Related Articles:
Healthcare IT faces healthy opportunities
CMIO touts benefits of specialization
Lessons in healthcare reform for CIOs
Analyst: Tablet set to cannibalize sales of netbooks, laptops