20% of US Physicians have already downloaded & used a mHealth App on their Smartphone

In a very positive sign of the rate of mHealth technology adoption, an Epocrates press release published over at MobiHealthNews, reports that 20% of all US Physicians are already using the Epocrates Smartphone Application.

To get this into perspective it’s worth remembering that it’s taken more than a decade and billions of $’s of federal government funds to get to a stage where only 17% of U.S. physicians and less than 10% of U.S. hospitals have only a basic electronic health record system.

15 Responses to 20% of US Physicians have already downloaded & used a mHealth App on their Smartphone

  1. Brian Dolan says:

    Hi David,

    I think you misread the report.

    Epocrates’ survey found that 1 in 5 (20 percent) of its users were likely to buy an iPad. It also said that 275,000 of its more than 900,000 base is using Epocrates on smartphones — that’s about 30 percent of its user base.

    Not sure how that squares with total clinicians, however.

    Brian

  2. Hi Brian,

    I don’t think I misread the report at all.

    “Today, as the most popular medical program in the Apple app store, more than one in five physicians are actively using Epocrates on their iPhone or iPod touch”

    “More than one in five” = >20%

  3. Brian Dolan says:

    Ah, my mistake — I see it now!

  4. […] will be the hub of digital medical care” I mentioned before about how use of Smartphones for clinical decision making in the USA has already exceeded the adoption lev…, but Dr Jaan Sidorov over at the Kevin MD Blog has written a fascinating article summing up how […]

  5. […] think it’s getting obvious that this horse has already bolted inspite of the lack of top down support and […]

  6. […] to be given to the Doctors/Patients. In 2010 the technology has been adopted and is now pervasive. Epocrates is being used by 20% + of all US clinicians despite not receiving billions of federal aid. This has been achieved by remaining focused on the […]

  7. […] systems interoperable”. Is this really “new” or “emerging” in 2011? Are they intentionally ignoring the rapid adoption of hundreds of thousands of smartphones by clinic… – who are typically buying this powerful HIT technology for […]

  8. […] Pamela Lewis Dolan, writing at the American Medical News has posted an interesting article picking up on something that I’ve been commenting on for some time: […]

  9. […] also plenty of evidence that they’re using them (eg. by the end of 2009 the Epocrates smartphone app had been downloaded & used by 20% of US Physicia…) and that’s before you even begin to count smartphone based tablet adoption (John Moore at […]

  10. […] Stating that family Doctors are lacking interest is wildly inaccurate. Physicians actually seed funded the mobile networks (don’t forget how US mobile networks evolved from pager networks) and their enthusiasm isn’t lacking when it comes to smartphones eg. by 2010 more than 20% had already started using the Epocrates app – which contrasts sharply wi…. […]

  11. […] phase will take… mHealth is setting incredible new records but it still took over a decade and billions of $’s of federal government funds to get to a stage where 17% of U.S. physicians and less than 10% of U.S. hospitals had implemented […]

  12. […] phase will take… mHealth is setting incredible new records but it still took over a decade and billions of $’s of federal government funds to get to a stage where 17% of U.S. physicians and less than 10% of U.S. hospitals had implemented […]

  13. […] There isn’t a medical Doctor who hasn’t used Google or a Cellphone for their work, by 2009 20% of US Doctors were already using a mHealth app on their smartphone app, 3000 clinicians at the Ottawa Hospital are running round with iPads, Doctors at the Mayo Clinic […]

  14. […] In my opinion attempts to force change on clinicians is a waste of time and funds – you might as well try to flog a dead horse – and there is lots of evidence to support this in terms of tech adoption by US Healthcare providers. […]

  15. […] isn’t a working Doctor in the USA who doesn’t use caller ID and SMS with colleagues, Epocrates released data claiming that by the end of 2009 more than 20% of US Doctors had downloaded …, […]

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