We’ve all seen the commercials: the catchy music paired with a montage of all the awesome things you can do with an iPad. The iPad—and Apple, in general—is all about the “wow,” the cool factor. So why wouldn’t rehab therapists use it in their clinic? We sat down with two occupational therapy clinics and asked them to share their experiences using iPads in their practice. 

Nick Roselli, OTR/L, CHT, of Nick Roselli Occupational Therapy in New York initially purchased laptops for his multiclinic practice. However, when he lost internet connectivity one day, Nick decided to use his iPad (with 3G internet connection) for that day’s patient visits and documentation. “I saw it was very user-friendly, and I could use it on the go as I visited my other clinics,” said Nick. In the case with Dynamic Rehab in Arizona, Tania Shearon, OTR/L, CHT, brought in her own iPad to use within the clinic, knowing that it would expedite her EMR documentation. “The iPad works awesome with my daily notes...much quicker,” Tania said. 

In general, Tania says the iPad is portable, fast, and easy. Nick listed similar qualities when speaking about the iPad in his clinics, emphasizing the user-friendly aspect and the ability to create quick notes. While Nick admits he’d rather use his laptop, especially for notes loading greater amounts of data, he says the iPad is just so much more mobile. The zoom feature on iPads is also a plus, too.

Today’s blog post comes from Jeremy Legaspi, a speech language pathologist at UPWARD in Phoenix, Arizona. Follow Jeremy on Twitter @AZspeechguy or visit azspeechguy.wordpress.com.

As a pediatric SLP, I’m always looking for new ways to interact with my patients and incorporate fun into my treatment plans. The iPad is awesome because I can use it for documentation and office purposes as well as for treatment. As a big iPad fan, I have about 500 apps. Here are the top five applications I use most frequently with my pediatric patients.

1.) Custom Boards

One of About.com’s "Best App for Special Needs of 2012,” Custom Boards Premium is an evidence-based app that allows you to use or create activity boards for children needing symbols to communicate and learn. Boasting over 11,000 built-in symbols from the Smarty Symbols library as well as the ability to add your own photos, Custom Boards allows you to select from a pool of templates in six areas: Devices & Switches, Grids & Boards, Schedules, Activities, Signs, and Labels & Worksheets. 

Your anything-that-starts-with-a-lowercase-i addiction is getting worse. It started innocently enough with an iPod, or maybe one of the first iPhones. But for years you could leave it at home, in the car, or at the bottom of your desk drawer without puddling to the floor in the sobs of severe separation anxiety.

That was until the iPad—the magical tool that allows you to browse the web, check your email, manage your practice, and slice your way to the high score on Fruit Ninja.

As if that wasn’t enough, here’s some more fodder to fuel your Apple affinity—three must-have 2012 iPad apps

 for physical therapists.

Core ($39.99) Make Core the core (see what I did there?) of your iPad app collection and you’ll have over 250 clinical tests to diagnose musculoskeletal and orthopedic disorders at your fingertips, plus detailed descriptions, instructions, and videos on how to use them. Here are some of the coolest features:

• pocket reference with periodic updates of emerging research
• Covers tendinous, neuropathic, ligamentous problems for each body part
• Reliable and valid diagnostics
• Links to supporting medical references
• Reference reviews via abstracts in PUBMed
• Free updates when new tests are available in the literature, or newstudies with diagnostic properties for old tests are published (i.e., no need to buy a newer edition)

EIM PT Mobile ($1.99) Choose from over 150 of the top physical therapy journals, blogs, and news sources and stream the feed directly to your iPad. Then, share the top stories with your entire network through Facebook, Twitter, and email. And feel good doing it; 10% of EIM’s proceeds will go to The Foundation for Physical Therapy or PTHelpForHaiti.org.

Pocket Body ($29.99) How better to visualize the human musculoskeletal system than with this anatomically accurate interactive atlas of the human anatomy on your iPad? Experience high definition illustrations, add learning notes, and self-assess with built-in anatomy quizzes. View each layer of the skin, musculature, ligaments, and skeleton from an anterior, posterior, lateral, and plantar view.

How do you like them Apples? Let us know about your favorite PT iPad apps today!