Physicians practicing primarily in the office environment tend to use smartphones differently than those working regularly in the hospital, according to Andrew Barbash, MD, director of neurosciences at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md.

Barbash said that, for physicians in the ambulatory care setting, quick access to drug information is high on the list of appealing applications. Physicians would also benefit from a smartphone’s text messaging capability to communicate with other physicians currently seeing patients in the hospital. And a doctor might even use a phone’s camera to take photos of a skin wound and e-mail it to a specialist.

Barbash said  most physicians are not likely to use smartphones to access a patient’s electronic medical record, however.

“I think with the rise of smartphones you will see doctors using e-mail and text-messaging much more often than they do now,” said Barbash. “And they will certainly communicate with their office staff more frequently when away. As doctors see their colleagues using smartphones, more of them will want the technology. In fact, I’m really surprised that you don’t see more phone companies engaging in front-end marketing to physicians.”