Survey finds mobile technology adoption in health care is slowing
A survey conducted by a cloud-based health care records management firm indicates that adoption of mobile technology by health care providers has slowed, at least temporarily.
AthenaHealth Inc. of Watertown released its third annual Epocrates Mobile Trends Report this week, examining mobile technology adoption and use patterns among health care providers. According to feedback collected in May from doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists, mobile adoption has “temporarily leveled off,” as tablet growth in clinical settings slows.
“While there was an impressive 68-percent increase from 2012 to 2013 in (those using tablets, smartphones and computers) this year, a slight decrease was detected,” a report summary by AthenaHealth said.
According to the report, the decline may be due to the push towards use of electronic health records (EHR) under federal health care reform in 2013, which has “fueled an upsurge in time spent on computers,” the dominant platform for EHR use. Only one-third of clinicians said their EHR is optimized for tablet or smartphone use, the report found.
Leading the charge in mobile platform use are nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Physician assistants are most likely to use tablets on a daily basis, with nurse practitioners following a close second, according to the report. Meanwhile, more than half of hospital pharmacists said they were “digital omnivores” who use tablets, smartphones and computers, during the workday.
Despite the reported decrease in health care mobile device use, AthenaHealth reported a bright future for mobile in the industry: 74 percent of clinicians are expected to be digital omnivores by the second quarter of 2015, the report found.
“It’s clear there is an opportunity to help health care providers bridge the gap between desktop and mobile while minimizing some of the more exasperating EHR pain points,” said Dr. Anne Meneghetti, executive director of medical information at Epocrates, an AthenaHealth service.
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