Elizabeth Moore (@ejamoore) at CNET HealthNews (which I really like) has put together a nice piece on physician smartphone use. It’s worth a peek.
A couple of things (not surprising) of note:
- A 2010 Manhattan Research survey puts physician smartphone adoption at 72%. They predict 2012 adoption will approach 81%.
- Blackberry and iPhone adoption would appear to remain neck and neck as far as preference among physicians.
- Significant numbers of physicians are using smartphones at point of care – 94% in a very small sample of 100.
And pharma appears to know this, for better or for worse. Having just returned from Digital Pharma West I can tell you that mobile apps are in 2010 what destination sites were for pharma 1995: Everyone’s gotta have one. Because, of course, if you have a mobile application you will work your way into the phone (and the mind) of the prescribing physician.
But not so fast. The presence of an app on my iPhone says nothing about my inclination to use it. And more and more I’m working to rely on just a few things.
This assessment from Spyglass Consulting Group’s 2010 report might be worth thinking about:
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 more apps may not be the answer. Just like another website wasn’t the answer in 1995.
Connecting and messaging to physicians in will require an understanding of precisely how they operate and use their tools – both workstation based and mobile. The quote from Spyglass unfortunately sums up the physician experience as it’s currently evolving.
Recognition of this reality and a clear understanding of workflow will offer insight into whether an app stands a chance of ever making it into a physician’s attention span.
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Bryan –
This is an important point.
I think we’ll start to see the need for developing truly real-time software (versus instant media like Twitter, Yammer, Facebook, etc.) By real-time, I mean the ability to deliver *relevant* data at the right time in the right context within the right process.
Currently, we don’t have those kind of software applications developed just yet – at least nothing in wide adoption.
So, there’s a lesson to be learned about simply creating applications for physician outreach: attention spans are short, physicians need simple solutions that cut-down on distractions, not increase them.
It’s not easy to accomplish, and I suspect we’ll see trial-and-error approaches.
This begs the question then: does this imply that eventually we may see the emergence of a dominant or small group of dominant information providers emerge?
It’ll be interesting to see who develops a thorough understanding of Workflow (keeping in mind that different professionals may have their own flows). Huge venture potential there.
@PhilBaumann
hi
I am a master student in medical librarianship and information sciences and I am intrested in the use of Smartphone in medicine.You have mentioned useful information here.tanks alot
regards
Bryan, great points and post. In your opinion will the smartphone ever become a vehicle for physician-to-physician consulting?
I had the privilege of witnessing first hand how a digital platform can facilitate this type of networking when working for a physicians-only ISP and web site called Physicians’ Online back in the late 90s. Doctors would use the discussion forum to ask questions and gain insights from other members into unfamiliar sets of symptoms for particular patients. It was incredibility powerful (and inspiring) to see! I wrote about this on my blog back in 2008, entitled “An Example of How Web 2.0 Can Make a Real Life Impact” (short link: http://bit.ly/bFu9l5)
I assume this is still happening to some degree on Sermo and Medscape and others? Will mHealth be the new platform for peer-to-peer consultation in the MD/DO community? What company or organizations is in the best position to build this type of platform and then facilitate the conversation? Curious on your thoughts!
@EricGlazer