April 07, 2008
Smartphones As A Clinical Tool
More and more physicians are using smartphones not just to manage phone calls and email but to use them in clinical practice. Unlike laptops and tablet PCs, smartphones are small enough to carry everywhere, their battery life lasts longer than a clinical shift and they have no standby or hibernation waiting times.
Although very convenient, many physicians are reluctant to carry and learn how to use smartphones in their medical practice. Others find it difficult to enter data into the devices and a additional barrier is that hospital IT departments must provide support for doctors using the devices.
There has been an increased interest in smartphones in the last few months. Epocrates recently announced the availability of its drug reference software for BlackBerrys, while Skyscape announced the release of all its medical textbooks for the BlackBerry platform. Thomson Healthcare has been providing medical software for BlackBerry devices since 2006.
The publicity surrounding the release of Apple's iPhone prompted yet another wave of companies pledging support for its platform. eClinicalWorks practice management software is designed for Web browsers, including those operating on iPhone, as is the American Academy of Family Physicians' CEND Personal Health Record Web site and Life Record's electronic health records software. Of course, this is in addition to the software that is already available on the Palm and Windows PDAs
Getting accurate data on how many physicians use smartphones in their practice is difficult because the term "use" can be defined in a broad range from taking practice-related phone calls to data storage, computing and Internet research. According to Thomson Healthcare research, about 31% of physicians in this country use smartphones in their practice. The Diffusion Group, a consulting firm specializing in IT, estimates higher -- that nearly half (49%) of U.S. doctors used smartphones in 2006.
Leaders in both the medical and information industries predict smartphone use in physicians' practices will grow rapidly across the globe. DataDyne predicts African countries will be among the most rapid adopters of wireless smartphone technology because of the relative dearth of land-based computing options.
In the United States, according to research by the Diffusion Group, smartphone use by physicians will increase to 70% over the next three years.
Source: iHealthbeat.org