"but the average physician is old." this is a curious statement to me for three reasons: 1) the ipad has been hailed as a device for first time computer users

"but the average physician is old." this is a curious statement to me for three reasons: 1) the ipad has been hailed as a device for first time computer users—the very old and the very young or even the physically/mentally challenged. 2) if they type painfully slowly with two fingers on a tablet, how do they type on a laptop? 3) the layers of abstraction are much greater on a laptop than a tablet. true, data input may be a little more tedious, but it will still be infinitely less tedious than dealing with paper files, with the added bonus of being instantaneously transferable should the patient be traveling. and if they are already using a laptop, then what is the dilemma? anyway, the "old dog" argument strikes me as a lazy cop-out—but if true, doesn't bode well for the mental acuity of said old dogs. i've always assumed that doctors are innately curious, always trying new things tempered by the old things that work†. if these old dogs can't step out of their comfort zone to try something new, it doesn't give me much hope for their patients. † i understand the toxicity of the new, when science claims to have found no difference between breast milk and formula, for instance, but gathering information does not necessarily equal an endorsement. and for the record, touch screens are very old technology, we just haven't been able to implement them in a mostly non-frustrating way until now.