ShareThisDr. Javeed Siddiqui, an infectious-disease physician, was at work when his iPhone rang with an urgent call. A colleague's niece was in distress. Her right eye was swollen from a dog bite.
Siddiqui asked the girl's father to send a digital photo of the 8-year-old's wounded eye -- directly to the doctor's iPhone. He quickly viewed the injury and issued a soothing diagnosis: No need for an emergency room. Antibiotics, which he prescribed by phone, would do the job.
Over the next few days, Siddiqui monitored the injury via photos sent to his cell phone.
Beyond their cool quotient, smart phones such as the iPhone and other handheld devices are becoming as handy as stethoscopes in a doctor's arsenal.
With the ability to view X-rays, zoom in close on images of wounds and peruse pharmaceutical libraries, these brainier cell phones are putting new tools at the fingertips of doctors, pharmacists and other health-care workers.
"So much about medicine is about making the right decision at the right time," said Siddiqui, an associate director at the Center for Health and Technology at the University of California-Davis Medical Center.
Gone are the days when pagers ruled. While they remain standard issue at some hospitals, many younger physicians see pagers as remnants of old-school technology on the verge of becoming obsolete.
"My iPhone puts things right in the palm of my hands, and I'm able to access things quickly during my day-to-day work," Siddiqui said.
Perhaps soon, a patient's pulse and heart rhythms -- even the contractions of a pregnant woman -- could be monitored remotely via cell phone.
"We haven't even scratched the surface," said Dr. Gregory Janos, 60, a pediatric cardiologist and medical director for children's services at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, Calif.
Some call it a revolution. Janos calls it an evolution that is transforming how doctors do their jobs in an increasingly wireless society.
Privacy laws are holding back some potential advances, such as the ability to beam sensitive patient data over wireless networks. But cell-phone access will eventually come, Janos predicts.
"As more and more patients are assuming responsibility for their own health care, they'll be able to share information with their doctor more quickly and efficiently," he said.
Just 54 percent of all physicians own smart phones or other handheld devices, according to a survey late last year by New York-based Manhattan Research, which analyzes trends in the health-care industry.
More medical schools are requiring personal digital assistants, or PDAs, but many students arrive already equipped with cutting-edge personal technology.
(E-mail Bobby Caina Calvan at bcalvan(at)sacbee.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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