Physician smartphone adoption rate to reach 81% in 2012

Physician smartphone adoption rates will experience significant growth over the next few years, according to the latest physician report from Manhattan Research. Currently, 64 percent of U.S. physicians own smartphones, but this rate will increase to 81 percent in 2012, according to the report.

Although the past few years saw strong growth in the share of physicians using digital media for work, in the next few years the Internet will become physicians’ primary professional resource, according to Manhattan Research. Mobile phones will become even more indispensable to physicians as they expand the range of activities they perform on these devices to include administrative tasks and patient monitoring, the report concludes.

“By 2012, all physicians will walk around with a stethoscope and a smart mobile device, and there will be very few professional activities that physicians won’t be doing on their handhelds,” predicted Monique Levy, senior director of research at Manhattan Research, in a prepared statement.“Physicians will be going online first for the majority of their professional needs and will be regularly pulling online resources into patient consultations.”