iPads at the Bedside

In 2011, we decided to do something that felt both obvious and audacious: make hospital data mobile. Our Hospital Information System had matured on desktops, but patient care does not happen at a desk. It happens at the bedside—during rounds, in corridors, in the ICU, in the few minutes when a junior doctor has to decide quickly and correctly.

The question was simple. Could we carry the hospital’s brain in our hands?

We began looking for a technology partner who could translate our desktop-based HIS into an iPad application that doctors could actually use—fast, clean, and without confusion. Ashwini introduced me to a Bengaluru-based company called Sourcebits, whose work had caught his eye. One of their apps, Night Stand HD, had apparently crossed four million downloads in four months—a number that sounded unreal to me at the time. But it told us one thing: they understood design, usability, and scale.

Sourcebits had been founded in 2006 by Dr. Rohit Singal, a radiologist with the instincts of an entrepreneur. Apple was building the iPhone around the same time, and Sourcebits rode that wave early. They became an Apple partner and built hundreds of apps across platforms. Their reputation was strong enough for us to take the next step: we showed them our HIS, explained our workflow, and awarded them a contract of ₹30 lakh to build an iPad-based interface for MGIMS.

Building the app, one problem at a time

Two people became the backbone of this project—Amit Pandey, a partner at Sourcebits, and Farzan Siddiqui, a software engineer. Over the next nine months, they and their team worked steadily, with support from colleagues such as Giridhar Krishnamurthy, Girish Karudi, Shashank Lagvankar, and Vivek Menon.

My role was less glamorous and more relentless. I became the bridge between doctors and developers.

There were weekly Webex sessions, long email chains, and repeated face-to-face discussions. We went through hundreds of small decisions—what should appear on the screen first, what should be one click away, what should never be buried under menus. And then came the predictable struggles: server breakdowns, connectivity problems, database glitches, and the stubborn challenge of importing radiology images smoothly into the application.

We did not solve everything in one dramatic moment. We solved it the way hospitals solve most problems—step by step, with persistence.

In January 2013, I met the Sourcebits team in person at a medical conference in Bengaluru. By then, the project had acquired momentum and shape. Later that year, in October 2013, Amit Pandey moved on to start his own company, Synclovis, focusing on mobile and web solutions. A year after that, in 2014, Sourcebits was acquired by Globo, a UK-based firm. What happened to Dr. Singal after that, I never clearly found out.

But by then, our work was already living inside the hospital.

The first time we saw CT images on an iPad

I still remember the thrill of seeing radiology images on an iPad for the first time. The CT and MRI scans appeared with a clarity that felt almost indulgent. We could scroll, zoom, and review images without standing in front of a single shared desktop in a crowded area.

Even routine lab values began to look smarter. Blood glucose and creatinine could be seen as graphs, not scattered numbers. Trends became visible. Decisions became quicker.

The app also allowed doctors to place orders electronically—tests, medications, procedures—without running back and forth between wards and terminals. The interface was clean, responsive, and surprisingly easy to learn. For the first time, our HIS felt less like a record-keeping tool and more like a clinical partner.

iPads on rounds

After implementation, iPads were distributed to doctors-in-training for ward rounds. The impact was immediate and practical. Residents could access patient records on the move, communicate with departments, view reports, review X-rays, and check results without leaving the bedside. It reduced the old dependence on paper slips and verbal relays. It also reduced the number of “I’ll check and come back” moments.

Most importantly, it allowed doctors to spend more time where they were supposed to be—with patients.

The iPads also made data portable beyond the wards. Doctors could look up information in corridors, at home, or while on call. The hospital’s information stopped being trapped inside a room with computers. It became accessible, alive, and usable.

A leap no public teaching hospital had taken

Encouraged by the success of the iPad application, the hospital administration decided to expand the ecosystem. In September 2012, we distributed 100 iPads and MacBooks to residents and faculty. This came on top of the 302 laptops that had already been issued to staff and residents in April 2006 and February 2007.

It was a significant institutional decision—especially in a public teaching hospital setting. It signaled that technology was no longer a side project. It had become infrastructure.

Two major upgrades strengthened the system further: the installation of PACS and the Radiology Information System, and the arrival of Wi-Fi on campus. Together, they improved imaging workflows, mobility, and access to patient data. The hospital moved faster, communicated better, and made fewer decisions in the dark.

In a small way, this is what we had wanted from the beginning—not computers for their own sake, but information that reached the bedside on time. That is where it belongs.

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