Smartphones in Health Care

According to a study published this month by the California HealthCare Foundation, two-thirds of physicians and 42% of consumers used smartphones in 2009. The report, written by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, titled "How Smartphones Are Changing Health Care for Consumers and Providers" focuses on how smartphones are being used in health care.

According to the report, a whopping 50% of iPhone apps for clinicians, medical students, and consumers are categorized as "Medical Reference" apps, and although the largest percentage of those are student study guides (19%), medical literature and drug reference apps together comprise the second largest percentage (13%).

Which brings me to the point of this post: Did you know that the SFGH library has a license to DynaMed, one of the highest-quality point-of-care medical/drug apps available today for physicians? It's relatively comprehensive (3,000 topics), has clearly designated levels of evidence, active links to cited articles, and great navigation for small-screen devices. Best of all, it's free to clinicians at SFGH. Take a look at the full version on the library's web site, and see if you'd like to install it on your phone or PDA. If so, email me (jgraham@sfghdean.ucsf.edu) and let me know what type of mobile device you have. I'll email you back a serial number and instructions for your specific device.