Over 50% of US physicians own PDAs or other mobile devices, and half say the device is essential to their practice, according to a Manhattan Research survey.

 
One-fifth of all physicians owning mobile devices have used them for CME. The most common uses for mobile devices, according to the survey, are to access drug reference databases or drug dosage calculators. The most popular reference databases and resource providers are Epocrates, MerckManual and 5-Minute Clinical Consult. 

 
The survey, part of Manhattan Research’s Taking the Pulse v8.0 report, is titled US Physician Market Trends. Other findings suggest that physicians who join online communities such as Sermo are more likely to be young, female and primary care physicians, to own a PDA and to go online during or between patient consultations, according to the data.

 
Despite a lack of reimbursement and worries about liability, 36% of physicians said they communicate with patients online, according to the survey, which cited secure messaging services such as RelayHealth and Medem as a way to provide structure and security regarding patient/doctor online interaction.