[medmac]

Hi "mac friends"

going to medical school in Austria
need a laptop
12" powerbook as first choice... but
what about medical software (almost PC only)
the competition is with a SONY VAIO TR5 (with XP pro OS - )

Is there any mac user (possibly medical professional or student)
who can give me a sincere advise...

thank you in advance

[spiky_dog]

i'm a first year med student (in the u.s.'s four year system). a large portion of my class has powerbooks and ibooks and i haven't heard a single complaint. all of our course software is either generic (pdf reader or office apps) or is web based (quicktime for movies, java applets). so go for the powerbook

[galarneau]

Originally posted by medmac:
Hi "mac friends"

going to medical school in Austria
need a laptop
12" powerbook as first choice... but
what about medical software (almost PC only)
the competition is with a SONY VAIO TR5 (with XP pro OS - )

Is there any mac user (possibly medical professional or student)
who can give me a sincere advise...

thank you in advance

My medical school in Adelaide, Australia used all Macs.

As far as the software goes, most of the USMLE test review software is PC only, but runs just fine on Windows NT4 under VirtualPC, which in my opinion is the fastest OS for VPC. I used to run it on a Pismo 400 with no problems.

Things like Harrisons and Up to Date run either in classic or under VPC as well just fine.

Personally, I would go for the Mac. Medical school is hard enough without dealing with Windows. Also, be sure to get a PDA. The 5-minute-clinical-consult software from Skyscape is amazingly useful.

Also, a tip from someone who's been there.... don't wait too long to get Step 1 out of the way. If you wait until you're clinical years, you start forgetting all that basic science.

[iREZ]

If I were you, I'd somehow check out what the school your going to will be using. Not any two schools teach the same. Maybe a phone calls will do the trick. Good luck.

[iMacfan]

I'm a med student too, and strangely enough, I was helping out today at the private surgery of a very prestigious doctor. EVERYWHERE there were macs. Powerbooks, iBooks, iMacs and eMacs - no problem at all!

So don't tell you Macs can't be used in medicine. You should have no problems.