Health IT

Phones, tablets may become most popular tech devices for docs since the stethoscope (infographic)

Using mobile health tools, doctors have the potential to reach twice as many rural patients, cut administrative costs by 24 percent and reduce the cost of care for seniors by one-fourth of what it is today. And, if mobile health continues to grow the way it has over the past few years, the smartphone and […]

Using mobile health tools, doctors have the potential to reach twice as many rural patients, cut administrative costs by 24 percent and reduce the cost of care for seniors by one-fourth of what it is today.

And, if mobile health continues to grow the way it has over the past few years, the smartphone and tablet are poised to become the most popular tech devices for doctors since the stethoscope (by the way, there’s an app and attachment that turn a smartphone into a stethoscope).

Those are some pretty bold statements being made in a new infographic created for the healthcare career site Allied Health World. Marketing firm QuinStreet created the graphic using information from various research firms, news outlets and mobile health organizations.

On the patient side, not surprisingly, 18 to 29 year olds are the biggest users of mobile health — nearly 30 percent of them report having used their phone to research health information, according to the infographic. Maybe they’re searching the Web to find information about a health condition or downloading one of the more than 40,000 medical apps available today.

According to the infographic, the number of people who downloaded health-related apps nearly doubled from 2011 to 2012. And continued growth of smartphone use will drive global revenue from these apps to nearly 10 times what it is today by 2018.

Check out the full graphic below.

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Courtesy of: Allied Health World