Are Doctors Using Tablet Apps for Professional Purposes?

by Jaime Brewster

More physicians are using apps via tablet devices for professional purposes, according to current wave data from Kantar Media’s Sources & Interactions Study, March 2013 – Medical/Surgical Edition. 34% of physicians surveyed (and 73% of those using tablets professionally) use tablet apps for medical journals/newspapers/magazines, making it the most widely-used app type among the six studied. Slightly more than one in four doctors use apps for diagnostic tools and clinical references and 20% use apps for drug and coding references. One in five doctors use apps for electronic medical records and 19% use drug/coding apps.

Over the six-month period, all types of tablet apps have increased in terms of percentage of doctors who use them for professional purposes, demonstrating the continued importance of this technology in the medical workplace.

Kantar Media’s Sources & Interactions™ Studies offer a detailed examination of healthcare professionals’ online and mobile activities, e-detailing experience, and exposure to (and evaluation of) information sources including traditional and emerging media, pharma reps, CME, conventions and more. The Medical/Surgical edition, conducted every six months, reports on the media preferences and habits of more than 3,000 physicians across 21 specialties; annual studies provide similar perspective on Pharmacy, NP/PA, Eyecare, Dental, Radiology, Managed Care, and Hospital C-Suite audiences. Sources & Interactions was designed to help manufacturers and their agencies cost-effectively allocate resources to their overall promotional mix, and provide publishers with specific insight about where their offerings fit into physicians’ (and other healthcare professionals’) information inventory.

To find out more about the study and specialty-specific data, let us know.