Hands Up — Who’s Bringing Their iPad into the Examination Room?

The Direct Primary Care Journal shared findings recently about the prevalence of iPad usage by physicians. According to the report, the most common activity of physicians who use an electronic health record (EHR) and use a smartphone or tablet is “sending and receiving emails.” The second most frequent activity among tablet users is “accessing EHRs (51% daily).” Compare that with just 7% of physicians using their smartphone to access EHRs.

VIEW THE COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF RESEARCH FINDINGS ON THE DPCJ’S WEBSITE

We’ve highlighted some of the results here:

Mobile phone usage by physicians who use an EHR:
~ 77% use a smartphone
~ 15% use a regular mobile phone
~ 8% use neither
~ 75% of physicians communicate weekly with other physicians using their smartphones
~ 70% of physicians research medications weekly using their smartphones
~ 33% of EHR users & 25% of non-EHR users use a tablet device in their medical practice
~ 33% of EHR users research medications daily using their tablet

Oh, and how about EHR satisfation? That’s right, survey says:

~ 33% of EHR users are very satisfied with their tablet device
~ 44% of EHR users are somewhat satisfied with their tablet device

At this point, the scientific part of us is laughing. We know, you can’t assume that you KNOW anything. But it’s just ridiculous how poorly EHRs are performing. If you’ll permit us a bit of polemics, check out this infographic, courtesy of American EHR. Notice anything missing? Yep, that’s right. There’s no mention about the research finding regarding the EHRs’ lackluster mobile experience.