Use of Mobile Medical Apps Continues to Rise

"Not only is the medical community using smartphones and their applications for basic tasks, but they report using them to complete some of the work that would have previously been done on a desktop or laptop computer. With one of the main focuses in healthcare today centered on the reduction of costs, any tool that can help medical personnel become more efficient is a boon to the industry." So says Melissa Elder, chief author of a new report from Kalorama Information detailing the state of the current mobile medical app market.

With mobile devices becoming the preferred way for consumers to manage everything from their finances to personal health, it's no surprise that the mobile medical apps market is on the move. And the sky appears to be the limit. According to the study, medical app sales more than doubled from $41 million in 2009 to $84 million in 2010, with over 50% of physicians reportedly using smartphones or PDA devices.

Do you have a mobile component to your EHR?

Are you working vendors that are already established in the mobile arena? Do they have mobile-ready content covering drug interactions, drug-allergy interactions, duplicate therapy, drug identification, dosage range checking, dosage administration, patient education, drug classifications, pediatric drug information?

If not...why?

The technology exists, the infrastructure is being put in place, the users are clamoring to be able to access this information on their devices and their numbers will only continue to increase. Can you afford not to?