Study: Doctors choosing iPhone over BlackBerry

(Credit: Apple, Research In Motion)

In 2006, Spyglass Consulting Group released a report, Trends in Mobile Communications, finding that 59 percent of physicians interviewed were using smartphones. Today, according to the firm's latest report, that figure has jumped to 94 percent.

"Physician smartphone adoption is occurring more rapidly than with members of the general public," said Gregg Malkary, managing director at Spyglass. Moreover, Malkary added, "Physicians are showing a clear preference [almost double] for using the Apple iPhone (44 percent) over the RIM BlackBerry (25 percent)."

A note of caution: the study's sample size is small. The "Point of Care Communications for Physicians" report involves telephone interviews in the spring of 2010, with just more than 100 physicians working in acute care and ambulatory environments across the United States. (Meanwhile, the 2010 Manhattan Research "Taking the Pulse" survey of more than 2,000 physicians puts the percentage of physicians using smartphones at a more modest 72 percent, compared with 20 percent of the general public.)

The firm also found that in spite of high smartphone use, 78 percent of physicians interviewed reported having trouble accessing and communicating with colleagues in a timely manner. According to Spyglass:

Physicians interviewed report they are overwhelmed by the daily volume of communications received from colleagues, care team members, and patients. They lack automated tools to manage voice mail, pager messages, SMS messages, and electronic mail. They are forced to continually check separate data silos, and manually filter and prioritize communications based upon sender, subject, and priority. Critical communications easily fall through the cracks.

So it seems that while "physicians across the United States are adopting mobile communications at point of care to improve communications and collaboration, streamline productivity, and enhance patient care and safety," the majority of them remain largely dissatisfied.

[techgeekdude]

This study has a bit of irony since healthcare professionals tend to be the most resistant when it comes to tech adoption. For example, many small practices still rely on paper-based systems, keeping most if not all of their patient records in paper form. The introduction of EMR years and years ago was intended to streamline patient records and ensure that medical information was transmitted across the board. That hasn't been the case because of the resistance in the industry so much so that Obama has to force its mandatory use in a few years. Choosing an iPhone over a Blackberry sounds like a good start, but it will come down to how docs are using it. Even then, I'm not sure if that preference is saying much just yet with an industry traditionally resistant to technology.

[solitare_pax]

The problem with records remains that there are no real universal standards for forms - each office uses their own style, or the style of the regional hospital, even if the notation remains the same - and they will ALL resist the adoption of a common-sense form or program.

[murph0613]

Ahh, finally a topic on CNet in which I have a bit of expertise. The reason that EMR hasn't been widely adopted to this point was because of a lack of standards in the Insurance industry. Each provider had its own format, and no single application used them all. Couple that with staggering costs of EMR suites, one needed for each format, and you have the reason that most smaller operations don't have them. They don't want to hire permanent data clerks/IT specialists just to transmit their claims.

This is going away. Obama mandated it; however, the industry has been working on this for quite a while longer than the government has. Soon enough, every insurance payer will be using the same format; the 5010. This will make virtually every EMR vendor drop their pants in price on their solution, since everyone will now play ball with each other. The doctors' offices will line up to get them.

Don't be surprised when the smartphones integrate with EMR systems. I already know of one vendor whose suite has Blackberry, Android, and iPhone apps for their EMR package.

It all comes down to the bottom line. Doctors will only spend money on the practice when they see a big return on investment. This is just around the corner.

In any case, I think this study leaves out quite a bit of information (or else CNet did), and it appears that it was a waste of someone's money.

[Seaspray0]

@morph0613. Excellent suppliment to the article. Ty.

[CupertinoBill]

My doctor told me of the first case he has heard of where two surgeons consulted during an operation used FaceTime at Stanford hospital. The younger doctor asked if he should remove more of a cancerous tumor? Turned to use the back camera to show the head surgeon. This is the kind of things that smart phones will allow. Wonderful stuff.

[Macology]

That is one of the rare moments where technology seems to be used in a practical fashion. I feel that much of the technology that exists today, is rather self serving and entertainment driven. It has been a while since there has been an innovation that has had a meaningful impact on actual life.

Today, I found an app for the iPod Touch that allows me to access Blackboard (it is essentially an online resource for professors and college students that allows professors to post assignments, or for students to submit assignments to a digital drop box etc), which is great since most mobile browsers are not able to access Blackboard on the web.

Now I have read your wonderful comment and I see that my discovery wasn't some fluke. Clearly, technology is becoming useful again.

[artistjoh]

@Macology
While it is true that huge numbers of people use sophisticated devices like the iPhone to amuse themselves with fart apps, I think you would be surprised how it is used as a serious productivity tool by many people. In my field of fimne arts iPhones are used virtually every class for a wide range of uses - quick lookup of art examples (can't carry an art encyclopedia around in the pocket), Anatomy references, especially 3D anatomies, Photographing a work, applying a quick effect filter as a simple way of visualizing creative choices and for sketching on. However since the iPad was released there is a wave of students drawing and painting directly on their iPads. Models love this electronic sketching as the artist can easily email the result to the model on the spot, and students benefit from being able to use layers in drawings which aids the creative process. iOS and the iPhone, Touch, and now the iPad have had a significant impact on the education process here and mostly in a very positive way.

So using technology in a practical fashion may not be as rare as you think.

[stepyourgameup]

RIM is going to be DOA if they don't get their act together.

[Seaspray0]

It won't be the phone maker who decides, it'll be which smartphone will have the applications needed by the Doctor. A doctor's office is a business, and businesses runs on applications.

[cyclelogicpress.com]

Is that why their headquarters are in Waterloo?

[OniOokamiAlfador]

RIM is really falling behind. iPhone and Android devices are both developing far more rapidly, and the iPhone pretty much has full exchange support. Android is approaching that quickly, and corporations are starting to offer them as company phones as well now. Soon there won't be a single thing RIM offers that both of those device families don't do better, and the only market left for regular old blackberries will be people who can't deal with the distraction of Apps and a web browser that doesn't suck.

[Seaspray0]

Android offers exchange support. It's no longer "approaching".

[bonesbautista]

@Seaspray0 - Yes, but Android?s missing a bunch (metaphorically put) of security protocols in it?s ?implementation?, by Google?s own admission. Android doesn?t have Exchange support, it has its own EAS implementation - none of the IT people I know will allow one Android device on their network, and some of my clients have banned even Android 2.1 devices from their workplace. And, ?Android? isn?t even close to feature parity across its own blanket OS name.

Look it up for yourself, start with the lack of full TLS support.

Not in thailand :P

[Yelonde]

Boy, those doctors are really stupid people for choosing the iPhone, aren't they? People who choose android phones are obviously smarter.