Reasons Why I decided to Get a MBA

There are many decisions that a physician has to make in 2015. What treatment plan is best, how to best manage time, and how to run a practice to name a few. Getting a MBA has been something I have been thinking about since I started fellowship and 3 years out, now is as good a time as any.

I thought I'd share my reasoning and what pushed me to do it. since many of my peers have had the same thought.

By the way, I am talking about a macbook Air (MBA). This is a physician-centric "hands on" with the Macbook Air.

Sorry if you thought this was about an REI getting an Masters in Business Administration - not at this time at least. You can read this article if you want to read about why you might want to get that MBA.

I got a Macbook Air (MBA) 13 inch 2015 after debating between the new Macbook and the Macbook Pro Retina (MBP) a conversation that I have had with many peers over the last year.

Yeah, this is a brief review on my brief time with the macbook air since many of you have been asking the same question: Macbook Air vs Macbook vs Macbook Pro Retina. While there are many good articles that break this down I thought I'd give my first hand reason and early experience.

First I had to figure out exactly what my wants/needs were.

I wanted something light. I wanted to move between patient rooms without lugging around a 5 lb Dell. As far as workflow, it seriously takes me 5 minutes  (x4-8 patients/day) to log into the EMR so it makes sense to be always logged in and move from room-to-room instead of logging in in each room. I think I save ~25 minutes of my life per day be reducing the number of times I log into a computer.

I also needed a laptop that I could productive on so the 11 inch macbook air was out of the question. the screen is a bit too small for my liking. I usually have a remote desktop running multiple Windows apps (multiple EMRs, radiology viewing programs), powerpoint, word, outlook, and multiple web based apps both productivity and social. I don't anticipate running processor intense statistics software like STATA, SAS, SPSS. I do a fair amount of video chat on my desktops so having the flexibility to do it on a laptop was important. Finally, I occasionally mess with iphoto and imovie but I usually do that work at home on desktop.

I would strongly consider the Macbook Air 13 inch if the points above/below resonate with you.

1. Performance and productivity

I run a lot of programs so I needed at least 8 gb or RAM and I thought an i7 processor to handle multiple tasks (the i5 is probably enough but the 8gb of RAM is critical) would be helpful. There is probably no difference between 8gb and 16 gb btw. The new Macbook is underpowered and I worried that while it could handle all of the tasks above, there might be lag and that would infuriate me. The Macbook couldn't handle STATA, SPSS without slow down particularly with large datasets. The MBA could handle them but again not a priority since I do that work on a desktop (or someone else does it). The MBP at this point is the remaining contender and I don't need a higher resolution, retina display, nor did I want the extra half lb.

WINNER: MBA

2. Portability

MBP is the heaviest. The Macbook is 2 lbs and the MBA is just under 3. Im not walking around campus all day, walking to my dorm, or to the local coffee shop so the MBA was good enough for me. Obviously, if you want the lightest laptop - the macbook is your Winner.
WINNER: Macbook

3. Ports
I wanted a USB 3.0 port or two, and a thunderbolt port to connect to my iMAC. MBA. check. The MBA also has a SD card reader for all the photogs out there. Macbook has only the USB-C port and I wasn't going to buy a dongle adapter. Pointless. The MBP has a ton of ports. I don't need a ton of ports.
WINNER: MBA

4. Battery Life
MBA is the winner hands down. 10 hours. Well documented as the best out of the bunch. Both the Macbook and the MBP will drain the battery faster since they have retina displays. If portability is important. Battery life is key.
WINNER: MBA

5. I still don't understand the point of a force touch trackpad 
WINNER: MBA (is the only one that doesn't have one)

6. Cost
depends on how you configure it but I was able to maximize performance and portability for under the cost of the base MBP so it made sense.
WINNER: MBA

7. Multi Media
MBA has a 720p webcam while the Macbook has a 480p one. Ports per above! If I did a ton of graphic design and movie editing and was looking for a desktop replacement for these tasks, I'd get a MBP. BUT, since I don't the MBA is enough for me.
WINNER: MBP

Final note:
if you want to be the cool kid at Barnes and Noble pretending to be studying get a Macbook. Its REALLY HARD to talk yourself out of buying one. For the window folks out there. I think the surface pro 3 is a great device and I used it for 2 weeks last year. I returned it due to a glitchy wifi patch that I was inpatient on waiting for. While performance and portability are on par with the MBA, battery life remains a problem. I look forward to the Pro 4 (still no release date) running Windows 10 but until then the MBA is the laptop for me.