Physicians using tablets to treat patients

The straightway wave of mobile adoption is well pursuant to this agreement way as healthcare providers increasingly turn to tablets, smartphones and apps to bolster patient care, according to a new survey of physicians in the U.S.

The straightway year

Within the straightway year, nearly half of all doctors will be using tablets and other mobile devices to perform day in day out tasks, just as accessing patient information in electronic medical records, according to the survey by the Computing Innovation Industry Association, a nonprofit group.

The study shows that more than half of healthcare professionals currently use a smartphone for work, and about a third use their smartphones or tablets to access EMR systems. Another 20% expect to start mobile usage with EMRs within the then and there year.

Doctors have reported feeling like data-entry clerks when typing their own notes into EMR systems. Others are unfamiliar with the innovation and see it as but one more learning curve to conquer in their jobs.

"As mobile devices and applications have become more user-friendly, affordable and powerful, the appeal to businesses of all types, including healthcare providers, has grown exponentially," Tim Herbert, vice president of technology at CompTIA, said in a statement.

The survey as well touched on the adoption of cloud computing in the healthcare industry. The results showed cloud computing is obviously in its early stages, with 57% indicating they were not very familiar with the research and just 5% stating they were using cloud services.

"It's worth noting, even though, that some healthcare providers are likely using cloud-based applications, like software-as-a-service, and not thinking of it as cloud computing," the report stated.

The potential for its growth is strong

The potential for its growth is strong. A key component of EMR meaningful use standards is the ability to share information, either through proprietary networks or through regional Health Information Exchanges, which will include many of the components of cloud computing.

Adoption of telemedicine, where physicians consult with patients with teleconferencing, is however a ways off, the report said. Recent studies have shown that patients can be such as effectively treated through telemedicine as through traditional in-person visits. Truly, studies have shown telemedicine to tell the truth improves patient-physician communication.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed . His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com .