Could iPhones one day be as ubiquitous in the black bags of doctors as stethoscopes?
Dr. Steven Schwartz uses his iPhone to identify drugs that patients are taking, to show patients instructional diagrams or videos, to write electronic prescriptions and to look up health information for patients, according to the Washington Post.
Other doctors use smart phones to look up drug interactions, view X-rays or MRI scans — even to stream music from the Internet during surgeries. And doctors increasingly are choosing iPhones over other smart phones  for their graphic, audio, video and memory capabilities, the Post said.
Nationally, 64 percent of doctors use smart phones in their practices, according to a survey done by market research firm Manhattan Research, the Post said.
Dr. Schwartz, a family practitioner at Georgetown University Medical Center, used to get frustrated when patients said they were taking pills, but they didn’t remember their names. The patients could, however, describe what the pills looked like.
Now, Schwartz uses an iPhone application called Epocrates to input characteristics of the pills. Up pops a list of medications and images that match the description.
Kind of gives new meaning to Apple Computer’s advertising slogan for the iPhone… “35,000 apps. And counting.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
More stories worth a read:
- Class of 2009 encouraged to build bridges as then embark upon the next phase of their lives (Case Western Reserve University news center)
- Hanover: Ohio hospital fee plan still too high (Business Courier of Cincinnati)
- PhRMA’s Billy Tauzin talks from experience on electronic records (Wall Street Journal Health blog)
- Pennsylvania Bio issues patient impact report on vaccines (BusinessWire)
- U.S. and 16 states join suits against pharmaceutica giant, Wyeth (PRNewswire)
- MetroHealth may take over medical services at Cuyahoga County Jail (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Philips plans new health regime (Financial Times)
- White House again leaves door open to taxing health benefits (Wall Street Journal Health blog)
- Glaxo forges $370M pact with Oxford Biotherapeutics (FierceBiotech)
- Researchers make discovery in colon cancer prevention (Physorg.com)
- Participation in clinical trials empowering for reporter in fight against cancer (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Carolina Care plan getting healthier (The [Columbia, S.C.] State)
