What Smartphone is Right for Physicians?

In his June 1 article on iMedicalApps.com, Iltifat Hussain does a great job of outlining the various benefits and weaknesses of the major smartphone players in the market as they related to healthcare and medical professionals. His post, "Should medical professionals get an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android Phone? It's complicated." does a great job of being fair to all players.

Go read the article, it's worth the 5 minutes it'll take you. Whether you don't yet have a smartphone, or have one and are wondering if the grass is greener in the "other" app store, there's lots of food for thought.

Here's a brief summation from the end of article: 

"So what smartphone is best for medical professionals?

Again, the decision is complicated because it depends on your circumstance and what you’re looking for. First, determine if you would actually use a smartphone or not.

The case for a Blackberry: If you want a phone that has a great e-mail client and great security, and don’t mind a bare medical apps selection, then go with this phone. Plus, the tactile keyboard is essential to some – touch keyboards can drive people crazy.

The case for Android: The Android operating system is fragmented with different versions of their operating system, this leads to many medical apps being incompatible on older devices.  However, if you’re stuck with a carrier that is not AT&T, an Android phone is your best bet if you want to have your choice of medical applications. Plus, in Androids newest iteration of their operating system, Flash capability is being built in, while Apple has made it clear their mobile devices will not have Flash support.

The case for the iPhone: The iPhone offers a huge choice of quality medical applications. Once you buy a medical app, you don’t have to worry about it being compatible down the line, unlike the other smart phones I’ve mentioned. Just by looking at the list of our top 10 free medical apps for the iPhone, you can tell there are plenty of quality medical apps available in the App Store. The knock on the iPhone is it’s exclusive nature with AT&T and the lack of a strong dedicated 3G internet connection, possibly problematic for medical professionals who work in or visit rural clinics.

At the end of the day, go the store, and play around with different smart phones [editor: emphasis added]. It’s important to understand the roadblocks to quality medical apps that I mentioned above, along with reception and security issues.  Each of the phones I’ve mentioned has its pitfalls.  Take all this into account and make a decision that reflects what you hope to gain from having a smart phone in medical practice."

Great advice from Iltifat Hussain. Something else to consider if you are wanting to sample the broad selection of apps for iPhone but don't have AT&T or don't want to purchase a new phone, is that you can run them on an iPod Touch without having to get a phone or an AT&T contract. In fact, Hussain wrote about that back in January -- you can read about iPod Touch vs iPhone here.

Although the landscape is changing rapidly, there's no question that as of now, Apple has a leg up on the competition when it comes to medical app quantity AND quality. And on top of that, with the iPad, you can run your current iPhone/iPod Touch apps at 2X size, which makes viewing text and images a whole lot easier and rewarding.

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Vice President, Publications and Editorial Resources
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and most of all, educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Vice President of Publications and Editorial Resources, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. In the past 15 years ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of CHEST. I have been quite honored and fortunate to work with two outstanding editors in chief and an excellent editorial team to support and build upon the reputations of CHEST and ACCP as world  leaders in clinical medical publishing. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time at home with my wife, two great danes, and iguana -- as well as scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.