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3G iPhone, Health2.0 and a World of Possibilities

Steve Jobs announced the long awaited 3G iPhone or iPhone 2.0 yesterday. The new devices will be available July 11, 2008 and start at $199 for the 8 gig version (AT&T contract required). (See the initial Engadget review of the iPhone. While the majority of consumers will easily become enamored with the new phone's faster Web surfing speeds, slimmer profile and global positioning system (GPS) support, physicians and healthcare professionals must ask more relevant and intriguing questions: What kind of impact, if any, will the speedier iPhone have on healthcare and medicine? How will it help transform physician practice and care delivery? What's its potential for reducing medical errors and ensuring quality of care? Physicians who are optimistic and enthused about the e-medicine revolution eagerly await the launch of Apple's App Store, through which Apple will offer iPhone applications from third-party developers.

Among the applications already announced are the following: MIMvista — Through this medical application, physicians can display and manipulate diagnostic images from anywhere their iPhones work Modality — Medical students benefit from medical textbook and other flash-card-type educational applications YouTube Video From Apple WWDC08, Highlighting MIMvista and Modality

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I already use my iPhone to access a number of clinical resources and applications. I visit Ozmosis when I need answers from experts within an online physician community, I depend on Skyscape's Five-Minute Clinical Consult for basics, and I use Epocrates for medication dosages. While these and other sites are already optimized for the Safari Web browser, they're likely to run faster on the 3G iPhone. I'm eager to see what the future holds for medical applications such as MIMvista and Modality.

In the meantime, it's helpful for all of us to stay informed on new and emerging iPhone technologies (Check out the iPhone Medical Blog to stay up-to-date). Rather than taking a wait-and watch approach, let's share ideas about future medical applications and spark a discussion on how this technology might address long-standing problems of cost, quality, access and efficiency.

Jason Bhan, MD Co-Founder, Ozmosis