Macbook for graduate/medical school

I'm not a doctor, so I can only refer to what I've noticed when friends or family have gone to medical school or worked in the medical profession. I think an argument can be made to use either platform and since that is possible I would promote parallels as the better choice.

On the Mac side of things you have all the daily necessities available in what is generally considered a rock solid, user friendly, industrial strength operating system.

On the Windows side you have the same features (email, IM, browsing, Word) in a different package.

For daily use it's really a matter of personal preference. When you start specializing you run into a different scenario and you will also find your requirements changing as the level of technology at your educational institution evolves.

On the Windows side you will find the advantage in the area of compatibility. Most digital versions of required publications will be available on windows and quite a few will be available on the Mac (buy the hardcopy and get the digital as an afterthought). A plethora of study tools and diagnostic applications will also be 'windows only', this alone does not justify the purchase of a dedicated windows machine.

Some University attached research laboratories utilizes Macs exclusively. This doesn't mean that Windows machines are unwelcome, it just means that you will often find people's data sets in Mac native application formats. On the higher end you will find a Mac advantage when it comes to running some industrial strength software (easy unix ports), and major ease of use when it comes to viewing certain medical images.

Let's take the example of a digital medical review. In this case you wouldn't be legally networked into the patient records at the hospital so you receive your daily dose of fedex, dhl, etc. You probably won't get x-rays anymore as most institutions use Stentor/PACS/ ("Philips iSite PACS" even) in general radiology. This means you get some optical media with a bunch of digital images DICOM. I have seen the standard viewer deployed on the PC side w/ some MRI series and it's terrible. On the Mac side you get something like Osirix ( http://homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix/Index2.html ) and use QuickTime for viewing anything in an extremely usable interface.

So..let's review: D

Daily life - either platform
Restricted Database Connections - Windows
Selection of Documentation and Software - Windows
Quality of Software - Mac
Integration into existing environments - Mac.

I did oversimplify a bit of it and generalize some, but you get the idea. I think you might want to consider doing your work on a Mac and firing up Parallels for anything that is a Windows only asset. I'm sure you'll find this is a great way to work.

In my opinion having access to either platform is a necessity to your success in medical school. Let's summarize that:

PC - only runs Windows
Mac - runs Windows or Mac OS X

Kinda a no brainer like my last CT 😉

If you can get a bigger machine you might want to move all the way up to the 17" MacBook Pro, otherwise pick your Mac the same way you would pick the size of your PC.

Good Luck in Med School,
-j


Various Macs

Locate and thoroughly read your school's 'computer requirements" site, similar to this link from UCSF Medical School:

http://nurseweb.ucsf.edu/public/compreq/hw.htm

It should help you determine if a Mac is a viable choice. Second, if using a PDA is going to be a part of your educational experience, be sure to research the requirements of the applications themselves. For example, Lexi-Comp and Epocrates support Windows and Mac, Palm and HP, but only in certain combinations. We have found that most (if not all) of these application providers do not support Mac + Pocket PC, even if you are using The Missing Sync or PocketMac.

My wife is in her third year of Pharmacy school, and has very successfully used a PowerBook G4 + Palm.

Sidenote: Make sure you shop Apple's online 'Education' Store to take advantage of aggressive discounting on h/w, s/w and AppleCare.

Powerbook G4, iBook, MacBook, iMac, HP n6220 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

At my school it's actually easier to get onto the network because you don't have to install any additional software or scan your harddrive.

However, I'm on my third macbook since the end of May and have had a terrible time with customer service so i don't know how i could recommend it in good faith.

My current macbook has been working for almost a week now.

Another thing to concider is that the macbook comes with no word processing software. But you could get MS office 2004 for 100 bucks after rebate or buy iworks for 50 clams.

I have seen very few people take notes on a computer at my school so i don't know how you plan on using yours.

Good luck monday.

Hi,

I'm a first-time mac owner and also a medical student. My macbook has worked seamlessly with my campus' wireless internet and heavily online-based resources. We use WebCT and Bluesocket at my school, and I have had no problems. Even installing my wireless printer driver was easy .. I actually didn't install a thing, I just clicked on add a printer and the driver was already on my macbook.

I take my MB with me everywhere on campus, and it has been great. Since it goes everywhere with me I keep it protected in a Booq sleeve (which I give 5 stars btw, great sleeve).

Let me know if you have other questions.

I'm glad you asked this. My daughter is going into a pre-med program and I have been considering buying her a MacBook for it (mine works beautifully), but have not been sure how well it would serve her in the program.

Here's a related question- can a MacBook run BOTH Windows and OSX at the same time, or is it a one-or-the-other deal?