A recent study by Manhattan Research reports that in addition to almost universal online access and rapidly increasing use of smartphones, 40 percent of U.S. physicians now use a digital device (most often a handheld) during patient consultations.
Highlights from the latest Taking the Pulse (News - Alert) report include the following insights about how doctors are using health information technology:
*About 99 percent of physicians are online, and the average physician spends about 8 hours online each week for professional purposes.
*In 2010, 72 percent of U.S. physicians own smartphones, up from half owning these devices in 2007.
BlackBerry (News - Alert) is still the top smartphone among physicians, but the growing family of Apple devices (iTouch and iPhone as well as iPad) eclipses BlackBerry as the most popular handheld platform. There’s little activity around Androids at this point.
*There’s been a significant increase in use of digital resources at the point of care - more than two in five physicians go online during patient consultations, with the majority of this time being spent on a handheld device.
*The top types of digital resources accessed during physician-patient consultations include drug reference databases, online journals, disease associations, and support groups for patients.
In addition, two-thirds of doctors are using social media for professional purposes:
*Nearly half of physicians say they are influenced by user-generated content they consider to be reputable.
*Physicians are more likely to access social content in an open forum (e.g., blog) than a physician-only online community.
Taking the Pulse is a market research and strategic advisory service provided by Manhattan Research focused on which technologies U.S. physicians have adopted, how they are currently using them, and how they plan to use them in the future. The study on technology adoption by U.S. physicians was conducted in Q1 2010 via online and offline surveys of a nationally representative sample of 2,033 U.S. practicing physicians. More information is available at http://www.manhattanresearch.com/.
Dr. Cronin is a Professor of Management in the Information Systems Department at Boston College. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Erin Monda