Many chief information officers have smartphones on the top of their 2009 wish list. The compact mobile devices combine online access to information with PDA (personal digital assistant) functionality, making them perfect for on-the-go clinicians.

UnitedHealthcare rolled out a free app for Apple’s iPhone Wednesday that allows members to find a doctor, hospital or other medical service via cell phone.

At the University of Louisville School of Medicine finds that smartphones give students faster access to health information, and more face-time with patients.

A Pennsylvania health insurer has deployed a smartphone app enabling members to view and share electronic medical records.

A telemedicine system based on a modified version of the Bluetooth wireless protocol can transfer patient data, such as medical images from patient to the healthcare provider's mobile device for patient assessment almost four times as fast as conventional Bluetooth and without the intermittent connectivity problems, according to a paper in the forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.