Majority of surveyed docs using mobile devices in practices

Mobile computing devices are becoming almost as much of an essential tool in U.S. physician practices as the exam table, according to a new survey.

Nearly 80% of 300 U.S. practicing physicians in primary care, family and internal medicine that were sampled and surveyed in April said they were using a smartphone in their “day-to-day practice.” Another 61% were using mobile tablets.

The most common use of a mobile device—by 72% of physician smartphone users—was to obtain prescription drug information, such as side effects and interactions, and for dosage calculations. Another 55% of physicians surveyed said they used tablets for that purpose.

When it came to more involved reading, tablets, not surprisingly, took the lead, with 63% of physician tablet device users responding they used those larger-screened devices for accessing medical research, compared with 43% of smart phone users.

A third of smartphone users said they communicated with patients via that tool, while only 17% of tablet carriers used it for that, the survey showed.

Asked how often they used each of the following information sources for accessing the latest information for diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care of patients, professional journals were preeminent, with 84% saying they turned to journals frequently or occasionally. But close behind were “general browsers” such as Google, Yahoo and others, with 80% saying the used them either frequently or occasionally for that purpose.

Health information technology adoption was most commonly mentioned by physicians surveyed—among a choice of six—as a key driver of increases in the cost of procedures and services within their practices. Forty percent of survey respondents indicated health IT costs contributed to increased healthcare costs “a great deal,” while 33% thought it contributed “a fair amount.”

But most physicians surveyed also indicated that health IT contributed to improvements in patient safety, quality of patient care and the practice of evidence-based medicine.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos, the Paris-based market and technology research firm, for Wolters Kluwer Health

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn