Physician Mobile Use Grows 45%; Apple® Dominates Android™ and Blackberry®

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Android devices may have a market-share edge among consumers, but among physicians and other healthcare providers, Apple’s iPhone and iPad still hold a commanding lead over all competing platforms, including Android, RIM® and Palm®, according to a new analysis by Bulletin Healthcare.

“The analysis suggests a number of opportunities for further research on the value of mobile information to medical professionals”

The analysis, based on the reading habits of more than 550,000 healthcare providers, including more than 400,000 physicians who subscribe to Bulletin Healthcare’s daily email briefings, focused on mobile device usage between June 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011. Reaching the members of two-dozen leading medical associations each day, with a combined audience of roughly half of the practicing physicians in the U.S., Bulletin Healthcare is in a unique position to gauge how physicians access electronically delivered medical information.

Examining the proportion of briefings accessed on mobile devices, the analysis indicates that mobile consumption of medical news climbed by 45% between June and February. The result is that almost three in 10 healthcare professionals now access the daily medical information contained in their briefings on mobile platforms, while seven in 10 continue to use traditional desktop platforms. Based on current trends, Bulletin Healthcare expects that ratio to continue to swing strongly in the direction of mobile usage.

“Despite Apple’s longer tenure in the marketplace, we were surprised by the wide margin between Apple devices and others,” said Bill Mulderry, president of Bulletin Healthcare. “Combined, the iPhone and iPad grabbed more than 90% share of use in February, while Android saw only 6% use, and other platforms like RIM and Palm barely registered.”

But just as important as Apple’s dominance, according to Mulderry, was the change in share among platforms: iPhone use fell to 79%, from 86% last June, while iPad share nearly doubled to 14% in February, up from 8% in June. Devices based on Google’s® Android operating system – which, according to The Nielsen Company, recently surpassed Apple’s offerings in share of the consumer smartphone market – more than doubled their share between June and February.

Also of interest were differences in mobile-device use between practitioners in various medical specialties. “We assumed that specialty-based segments of the medical community might differ in their media habits and use mobile devices to varying degrees,” said Mike Donatello, vice president of research at Bulletin Healthcare parent company Bulletin News, LLC. “Still, we were surprised to find a threefold range in mobile-device use, between emergency physicians and physician assistants on the high end, and clinical pathologists on the low end.” Bulletin Healthcare found usage among specific specialties to be:

Physician Assistants – 41%
Emergency Room Physicians – 40%
Cardiologists – 33%
Urologists – 31%
Nephrologists – 31%
Dermatologists – 30%
Gastroenterologists – 30%
Psychiatrists – 28%
Optometrists – 28%
Radiologists – 24%
Rheumatologists – 22%
Endocrinologists – 21%
Oncologists – 20%
Clinical Pathologists – 16%

“The analysis suggests a number of opportunities for further research on the value of mobile information to medical professionals,” said Donatello. “We hope to leverage Bulletin Healthcare’s unique relationship with this commanding audience to provide insight of value to both providers and the businesses that serve the medical market.”

About Bulletin Healthcare

Through its Custom Briefings line of morning eNewsbriefings, Bulletin Healthcare, a subsidiary of Bulletin News, LLC, partners with the nation’s most prestigious medical associations to bring their members and affiliates – primary care physicians, specialty physicians, emergency medicine professionals, physician assistants, pharmacists, medical executives, etc. – the latest medically-relevant news of specific interest to each group. Bulletin Healthcare partners with the Cleveland Clinic and 23 leading medical associations (AMA, ACC, ACR, AGA, APA, etc.) to provide daily news briefings to more than 550,000 healthcare professionals, including more than 400,000 physicians, across a wide variety of specialties. Bulletin Healthcare’s succinct eNewsBriefings are prepared overnight and delivered weekday mornings by 8:00 A.M. Bulletin Healthcare’s parent company, Bulletin News, LLC, provides customized daily briefing services for top officials in the White House and most of the Cabinet-level departments and agencies, including the HHS and FDA.

For more information on Bulletin Healthcare, visit BulletinHealthcare.com.