More than 80 percent of U.S. physicians will have smartphones by 2012--up from 64 percent in 2009--and half of that group will use their phones for patient care, administrative functions like charge capture and even continuing medical education, according to a new report from Manhattan Research that drills deeper into data first released last fall.
"Handheld devices are becoming more and more useful to physicians, partly because of the boom in physician-oriented apps and portable content," report author Monique Levy says in a Manhattan Research press release. Levy also speaks of a great opportunity for healthcare marketers to reach physicians via mobile devices.
The BlackBerry still dominates among physicians and healthcare application developers, though the iPhone and Google Android are closing the gap quickly, thanks to their touch-screen functionality. Levy promises more data next month.
Manhattan Research also reports that the majority of adoption of mobile healthcare technology is occurring in small physician offices rather than large clinics or hospitals.
For further information:
- take a look at this Mobile Enterprise story
- read this Manhattan Research press release