To his frustration, Steven Schwartz often encounters patients who have no idea what each of the pills they've been popping is called.
"But usually they can tell you what it looks like," the Georgetown University Medical Center family practitioner said. "They might say it's a blue, triangular pill for hypertension."
Armed with an iPhone, Schwartz is able to play detective.
He uses an application called Epocrates to input pill characteristics, such as color, shape and clarity. The software replies with a list of medications and images that match those criteria, allowing him to deduce what the patient is taking.
Schwartz says his iPhone has become indispensable: He uses it to pull up instructional diagrams and videos for patients, write electronic prescriptions and check basic information, with the patient beside him.
" 'This is how often you need a colonoscopy,' I'll say to a patient," Schwartz said. "I'm just double-checking on my phone to make sure I don't make a mistake."
Doctors are also using smartphones to look up drug-to-drug interactions, to view X-rays and MRI scans, and even to stream music from the Internet during surgery.
The power and versatility of smartphones, Schwartz said, is leading more doctors to abandon their pagers and PDAs. Of the various smartphones on the market, such as the ones made by BlackBerry and T-Mobile, the iPhone's graphic, audio, video and memory capabilities are helping it take the lead in the medical field.
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