by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | December 05, 2012
For clinicians, the most popular apps are viewing patient information, at 65 percent, and looking up non-protected health information such as clinical references, at 64 percent. Interestingly, both fell from the 2011 HIMSS mhealth survey, which found doctors used the apps at 84 percent and 75 percent, respectively.
Other popular app categories were clinical notifications, tracking work lists, education and training, and e-prescribing.
About one-third of clinicians use apps to monitor data from medical devices, such as patient monitors, according to the study, a number that was up a few percentage points from last year.
As for integration of data from medical devices with EHRs, the picture was a mixed one. About 22 percent of respondents said all data pulled from devices was captured by EHRs, while an almost equal amount, 21 percent, said none was. About 22 percent said less than a quarter of the data was captured by electronic records, according to the survey.
Barriers and policies
In general, respondents said lack of funding, trouble securing qualified IT staff and the "immaturity" of vendors were the biggest barriers to implementing mobile programs. These problems are also growing. Seventy-one percent of respondents said funding was a concern, up form 48 percent in last year's survey ,while 52 percent said staff was a concern, up from 39 percent in 2011. About half of respondents said vendor immaturity, new to this year's survey, was a worry. Security and privacy fears, however, dropped to fourth place in their list of worries. Just 43 percent identified it as a barrier, well below the 60 percent who picked it last year.
Even if security is not the grand fear it once was, organizations are moving to put policies in place to make sure mobiles are better handled, the survey said, often because they're worried about HIPAA compliance. Two-thirds of respondents have mobile policy in place, usually covering laptops, tablets, phones and movable workstations, an increase from 38 percent in 2011. Another 27 percent said they'll implement one in the future, typically within the next six months to a year.
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