Apple Quietly Expanding Science Focus into Medicine

by , 4:15 PM EDT, September 26th, 2008

Apple has quietly added a new page to its science site that focuses on Medicine and Clinical Practice. The Mac's advantages in imaging, visualization and video along with considerable progress in practice management by third parties makes this a natural technical discipline for Apple to add.

A recent sign of that initiative was the inclusion of the word medicine in Dr. Liz Kerr's title, the Apple director of science and medicine markets. She credits that significant move in the last six to 12 months to the OsiriX software running on Mac OS X.

Source: Apple

Historically, Apple products have found favor in all scientific areas, from astronomy to chemistry and microscopy. Apple also has considerable market share in genomics and proteomics research. Not only does Apple sell desktop computers in those disciplines, but also a small workgroup cluster of Xserves.

Apple's recent addition of the page that focuses on Apple solutions in medicine is significant. Traditionally, Apple doesn't showcase support for specific scientific disciplines without specific intentions, solutions, partners and internal support. For example, while Macs are very popular in astrophysics, (along with Linux), Apple does not have a page that specifically addresses that discipline.

In typical fashion, the medicine page showcases the major areas where Apple shines: Medical Imaging, Video for Surgery, and Practice Management. White papers and technology partners are also identified.

In the wider market, home users are switching to Macs, and the sales of Macs continue to climb. Behind the scenes, however, in science, the enterprise and the government, Apple is also making slow and steady progress. Medicine, both research and practice, is now one of those growth areas.