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indigo
PDAs and smartphones are making the life ofdoctors much easier, with fast access to medical digital libraries and storageof complex files. Doctors can also access drug reference databases, treatmentguidelines, clinical and medical references, product updates and medical news.
Even though PDAS and smartphones wereoriginally designed to aid work in the business and corporate world, thedevelopment of specialities software and applications have made it possible forthose devices to become a work tool for professionals from a variety ofbackgrounds. According to research carried out by Manhattan Research, around64% of American doctors use smartphones and PDAS at work. In this community,BlackBerries devices are the most common.
This phenomenon is yet to catch on inIndia, where only 15% of doctors regard their smartphone as essential for theirprofession, according to a report by Research at Tavess. The report remarkedthat although Indian doctors are not immune to the benefits of new technology,India's large proportion of older and rural doctors means that they areunfamiliar with how to use smartphones.
This problem could be addressed with theprovision of phones that are easy to use, and have intuitive interfaces. Forexample, the BlackBerryBold 9790 features both a classic QWERTY keyboard and a responsivetouchscreen, which maximises its usability. The BlackBerry Bold priceis also in a reasonable range for doctors.
In addition to this, Tavess Researchrecommend initiatives that give an opportunity to 'try' and get 'educated', toovercome the barrier of unfamiliarity.
There are a number of provisions already inplace in mobile, which Indian doctors ought to harness. Currently, Mobile PDR,Skyscape, Mobile Micromedex, Lexi-COMPLETE, Thomson Clinical Xpert, MobileMerckMedicus and MDConsult Mobile are the most widely used drug referenceresources on mobile. On the app front WebMD, UpToDate, MDConsult Mobile,MedScape, etc. are apps most widely used by physicians.
Source: themobileindian.com
