Smartphones in medicine (“Let me count the ways”)

These questions are from an interview I gave to a medical journal this week….Dean

1. In what ways do you believe smartphones can help doctors and other health professionals in their practise?

The major benefits of smartphones come from their easy pocket portability, apps (tools) help physicians to manage their time more efficiently and access to the web (current medical evidence). However, the smartphone will not teach good time management or digital literacies to the physician. This is where well-informed medical librarians can help physicians use new technologies. See Apple iPad for physicians‎

2. To what extent can smartphones help doctors to practise evidence based medicine?

Smartphones are not a panacea but, in the hands of a skilled physician user, can provide on-the-go access to synthesized evidence in point-of-care tools such as the Cochrane Library, DynaMed and UpToDate. See Point of care decision-making tools – Overview

3. Although many doctors do use smartphones at work, the majority (at least in the UK), do not. Why do you think this is? Is this likely to change?

In North America, I’ve heard that 75% of physicians have a smartphone. But I’m sure that low physician usage of smartphones is due to small screens and easy availability of desktop computers. Small screens and the difficulties associated with reading them is probably why Apple came up with the iPad…to provide portability and larger screens (readability). If the issues around security of patient information can be resolved, I don’t see any limitations for smartphones.

5. Smartphones have been around for years, with the iPhone having been around since 2007 and others such as the Palm Treo for years before that. Within medicine, how well developed would you say the market for smartphone apps is?

Experts say the market for smartphones is huge and shows no signs of slowing down. It’s reasonable to ask whether smartphones will continue to be used by physicians and other health professionals, and whether they are well-suited to our work. More research is needed.

6. Do you know of any smartphone technologies or applications on the horizon that might change doctors’ practise in the future?

The social and mobile aspects of the web need to come together in medicine through smartphones and apps, that’s the future. Part of that is bringing patients and physicians together using social media.

7. What do you think are the most useful smartphone apps for doctors (and why)?

There are some very useful general apps depending on interest and subspecialty. Most physicians find general apps such as PubMed On Tap and Wikipedia Mobile easy to use; drug tools such as Epocrates and Micromedex Drug Info and point of care tools such as DynaMed and UpToDate are popular. QxMD has some great apps as does Skyscape Medical Resources (includes RxDrugs) and most (if not all) are free. Differential diagnosis tools such as Diagnosauras DDX are also useful.