Adam:
I think the big question would be whether you were planning to
leave the computer in the exam room when you complete an encounter.
If so, I would advise a desktop. You can put the guts of it under cover and leave the more-easily-replaced peripherals exposed to the "tender mercies" of your patients (not to mention blood, pus and saliva).
The advantages of laptops arise via decreased space demands and portability. I use one in my outpatient clinic, where I have to take my workplace with me, and I then sit in one small place and have my patients come to me. Those encounters are mostly talk, and little risk of biohazard spattering my laptop's keyboard.
In the office setting, I also felt funny walking into the room and unfolding a laptop, and I never found a suitable cart to transport it.
Laptop keyboards tend to be less comfortable. I get wrist strain easily, and require a big ergonomic wireless keyboard.
Laptops also require a bit more thought if you plan to incorporate speech recognition.
I devised an interesting approach using a "slate" computer, but have been unable to exploit it so far.
There is some discussion on related issues in this thread:
http://www.amazingcharts.com/ub/ubb...ill&topic=0&Search=true#Post4103
