The findings of a new Kantar Media Sources & Interactions Study shows that doctors are using their smartphones for work in unprecedented numbers.

“Over the last decade,” observes Alejandro Alvarez of Kantar Media, “digital technology has become a mainstay in our lives.”

And the same goes for physicians and health care professionals.

Kantar’s most recent report found that almost three-quarters (74%) of the physicians surveyed use a smartphone for professional purposes, a 9% increase year-over-year.

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iPatientCare has announced the launch of the 2G Patient Portal and mHealth products, miEHR and miPHR.

If you’re not familiar, iPatientCare provides medical professionals with a wealth of tools and resources, including the ability to capture accurate clinical information at the point-of-care on Palm, Pocket PC, Tablet PC, and Smartphones.

An innovative pioneer in mHealth and cloud-based ambulatory EHR and integrated Practice Management solutions, the company touts itself as being “one of the visionaries of the US healthcare IT products and solutions market place.”

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It’s an important question on the minds of several U.S. lawmakers this week.

The Hill is reporting that several members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee want to know if smartphones, tablets and apps will be regulated as medical devices.

The prospect of that reality is conceivable, they say, under President Obama’s new healthcare law.

Six GOP lawmakers, including Energy and Commerce chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), wrote to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Friday asking for clarification.

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The mobile payments industry has officially gone to the dogs.

If you take a good look around your community, there’s an increasingly high probability that you’ll find a mobile veterinary clinic traveling through town providing low cost care to animals.

Even the legendary Neuter Scooter – which spays and neuters cats and dogs from mobile locations around the country – is beginning to cross paths with other mobile veterinary clinics and vaccination services.

Why? It’s becoming a big business opportunity in the era of mobile payments.

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Mobile services designer Mark Curtis says mobile is reshaping health care as we know it.

“In the not-too-distant future,” Curtis asserts in a new CNN editorial, “you’ll receive a full diagnosis and cure from your smartphone before you have even realized you’re unwell.”

According to Curtis, who serves as chief client officer at design consultancy Fjord, digital is set to embark on a path of “radical transformation” in the health and wellness sector.

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The Journal of Medical Internet Research is reporting the findings of a recent Norwegian study which aims to show how smartphones can help women suffering from chronic pain.

A total of 140 women with chronic widespread pain participated in the study, which sought to learn if Internet-based interventions using cognitive behavioral approaches could be effective in promoting self-management of chronic pain conditions.

Web-based programs delivered via smartphones are increasingly used to support the self-management of various health disorders, but research on smartphone interventions for persons with chronic pain is limited.

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According to the recently published findings of a survey spearheaded by CDW, tablet computers and related mobile technologies are making lives easier for medical professionals across the board.

152 healthcare providers who tap their tablets to help perform clinical work say that their tablets (mostly iPads and Kindle Fire devices) make them happier and more productive at work.

Although the survey also explored tablet usage among media and large business respondents, higher education respondents, and state and local government respondents, the feedback from healthcare industry workers is being discussed most today, largely in response to the optimism it lends to the growth of the mHealth ecosystem.

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