Smartphone use for professional reasons among U.S. physicians 2012-2015

This survey indicates the percentage of physicians in the United States who use smartphones for professional purposes from March 2012 to March 2015. In March 2014, 79 percent of surveyed physicians used smartphones for their medical practice. Use of digital health has grown in the medical industry as consumers are expressing increasing interests in mobile health technologies.Physicians, patients, and digital healthUsage of smartphones among physicians in the United States has risen. From 2012 to 2015, 68 percent to 84 percent of physicians, respectively, reported using their smartphones for professional purposes. Digital health has become more widespread globally among the medical industry. In the United States, 85 percent of physicians reported that they had already implemented electronic medical records by 2014. However, it has been proposed that the adoption of smartphone usage among doctors has started to plateau. The use of tablets is also becoming more common among doctors in daily professional procedures.Digital technologies provide a new approach for consumers in regards to the accessibility to information and to physicians. Over half of U.S. adults used the internet to search for a specific disease or medical problem in 2012. Digital technologies have altered the way that patients undergo treatment. For example, over half of U.S. consumers would send a digital photo of a rash or skin problem to dermatologists for an opinion and 38.6 percent of patients would be willing to have a live visit with a physician via a smartphone app. The global mobile health industry has risen rapidly and is expected to reach 55.9 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

本调查揭示了自2012年3月至2015年3月期间，美国医师使用智能手机进行专业目的的比例。在2014年3月，接受调查的医师中有79%使用智能手机进行医疗实践。随着消费者对移动医疗技术的兴趣日益浓厚，数字健康在医疗行业中的应用得到了增长。在美国，医师中使用智能手机的比例逐年上升，从2012年的68%至2015年的84%不等。全球医疗行业在数字健康方面的应用已更为普遍。截至2014年，美国85%的医师报告称他们已经实施了电子病历系统。然而，有人提出，医生使用智能手机的采纳率可能已经开始趋于平稳。平板电脑在日常专业流程中的使用也变得越来越普遍。数字技术为消费者提供了获取信息和与医师交流的新途径。在2012年，超过半数的美国成年人使用互联网搜索特定的疾病或医疗问题。数字技术改变了患者接受治疗的方式。例如，超过半数的美国消费者会将皮疹或皮肤问题的数码照片发送给皮肤科医师以获取意见，而38.6%的患者愿意通过智能手机应用程序与医师进行实时访问。全球移动医疗行业迅速崛起，预计到2020年将达到559亿美元。” }