"A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality. A smartphone may be a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smartphone may simply be a phone with advanced features like e-mail and Internet capabilities." (Wikipedia)

Available smartphones include Apple iPhone, HP iPAQ 910c, Motorola RIZR Z8-10, Nokia E63, E71, E90, Palm Pre, Palm Treo 700p and RIM Blackberry models. Specifications of these sets can be compared at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_smartphones.

Unboundmedicine: Clinicians can quickly access continually updated information on diseases, drugs, or tests and other medical literature at http://www.unboundmedicine.com/iphone. Its customized iPhone interface has a built-in web browser to facilitate quick answers.

Epocrates Rx: Epocrates Rx software for iPhone is available for free download from http://www.epocrates.com/products/rx/iphone.html. It allows for instant access to drug information, identification, interactions and reference formulary information - all without the need for Internet connectivity!

Skyscape Medical Information software: Skyscape has recently introduced medical resources for free downloading for iphones from http://www.skyscape.com/intro/iphoneintro. aspx?WT.mcid=38421. They include Outlines in Clinical Medicine®, Archimedes™ - Medical Calculator, RxDrugs™: Drug Dosing Tool and MedAlert™.

iphone dependent physician!

Cisko iphone WebEx: Now going abroad and far for specialty meetings is out. You can deliver and attend presentations, share documents at home and have video conferencing with as many attendees you want. While attending a conference, you shall see the presentation of the speaker loud and clear, so you are always at the best seat of the house! WebEx has recently upgraded its version so that it can be used for iphones too. A 14 day free trial period is also available at http://www.webex.com/iphone.

Integrated YouTube and podocast viewer: All iphones have integrated YouTube viewer and Podcast viewer. There are many medical YouTube videos available online, like, clinical cases website (http://casesblog.blogspot.com/), echocardiogram teaching cases (http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/echocardiograms-and-cases-on-youtube.html) and pathology tutorials (http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/544-histopathology-videos-on-youtube.html) .

The Life Record Electronic Medical Records: The Life Record Electronic Medical Records lets you promptly log in to your Life Record LivePractice EMR via EMRAnywhere. You can check any patient records on iphone and use EMRAnywhere to write a prescription from phone which can be instantly transmitted to the pharmacy via LivePrescribe, the free e-prescribing system. Similarly patients can share their medical records with doctors on their iphone now, including all radiological images (http://www.liferecord.com/emr/lriphone/index.html).

Sharing medical images: Now physicians and patients can share their medical images including ultrasonograms, computed tomography scans, using this free, highly secured, online DICOM viewer. Unlimited number of scans can be stored for unlimited time. Physicians can share interesting case images, use DICOM images for powerpoint presentations, and discuss unusual findings online (https://www.webpax.com/).

The free symptom navigator for the iPhone 3G: This application helps patients match medical symptoms with relevant assessments and appropriate treatments. The tool offers possible causes of the symptom and medical condition, how to self treat, when it is an emergency, when you should call a doctor, and how to prevent it in the future. This data is provided by their medically reviewed, evidence-based and accredited health encyclopedia (http://iphone.adam.com).

To summarize, newer handheld devices are intended to make physicians more efficient in their daily work, and not completely dependent on them, like the surgeon in the cartoon!