Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals should be pleased with a new tool at their disposal – the new Gobi-enabled Panasonic Toughbook H1 certified to work on Verizon Wireless’ network.

The product delivers a double whammy when considering the current administration’s plans for the country: more efficient healthcare and broadband access.

The device is designed to help facilitate better healthcare decisions – drug interactions, for example, and that ever-present issue of physicians’ hard-to-decipher handwriting, according to Vicky Obenshain, director, Wireless Strategy at Panasonic Computer Solutions. Electronic patient charting offers a clear, concise format, so caregivers won’t make mistakes based on an inability to read someone’s handwriting.

The H1 is capable of using either Wi-Fi or 3G. “We think having support for both Wi-Fi and a WAN environment is critical,” she says. “It gives hospitals greater flexibility in how they deliver care.”

The product offers a lot of attributes, such as ruggedness and a molded handle, according to Obenshain. The device can withstand a drop onto concrete, and it’s fully sanitizable. It actually shuts down if it hasn’t been properly cleaned, and history shows a lot of the times, the disease a patient contracts while in a hospital is not the disease with which they were admitted.

The H1 is available worldwide. In the United States, the base H1 model has an estimated street price of $2,999 from authorized Panasonic resellers and distributors, and the device is backed with a 3-year warranty.