Windows 8 apps for medical professionals

Have you had a chance to play around with Windows 8? It can be a bit confusing when you talk about Windows 8 because Windows 8 combines two operating systems into one. You get an enterprise desktop operating system that is nearly identical to Windows 7. Plus, you get a touch-friendly mobile ecosystem that supports familiar touch-friendly apps that you'll find on other tablets like iPads and Android tablets.

Right now, you won't find many medical apps for the Windows 8 mobile app ecosystem.

Right now, the apps that are most relevant for medical professionals include:

• Greenway Technologies' PrimeMobile (if you happen to use their EHR)
• UpToDate
• Micromedex Drug Information

You won't find Epocrates, Medscape, or Doximity. Then again, do you really need these to be native apps if you can simply open a browser and go directly to these websites?

We're starting to see more apps appearing in the Windows 8 app store (Called the Windows Store on Windows 8). Last week, the official Twitter app appeared for Windows 8. Top free apps on the Windows app store include Skype, Google, Dropbox, Kindle, and eBay. No surprises there since these are all very popular apps across all the mobile ecosystems. Don't get confused by apps that use the word "Facebook" in them since they may not be official Facebook apps. I hope that Microsoft will do more to monitor the names/logos used on some of these non-official apps.

In many ways, the Windows app store reminds me of what the Android app store resembled many years ago. The Android store was filled quickly and eventually was renamed Google Play. We saw many Android apps flood the market from other countries, particularly Asian countries like Korea and Taiwan. Will we see the same thing in the Windows 8 app store?