Chattanooga: Pros give smart phones good traction
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Amy Williams
Saturday, November 15, 2008
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For an increasing number of people, smart phones act as a lifeline with the rest of the world, whether it’s their clients, co-workers or even their families.
Once thought of as a tool just for high-powered stock traders and businessmen, today’s smart phones, such as BlackBerrys, iPhones and Palm Treos, are being used by people from all professions, from lawyers previously unreachable in the courtroom to surgeons who need information immediately.
Husbands text their wives to fill them in on what’s happening at home. Assistants remotely update calendars for their bosses and nurses can send urgent, detailed messages to doctors about patients.
Dr. Chris LeSar, a Chattanooga surgeon, routinely checks his iPhone upon stepping out of the operating room.
"With text messaging, that is now our paging system," he said. "Only a third of the surgeons now carry a pager; we’ve given up our pagers because of the instant messaging."
Smart phones are similar to cell phones, but add a range of additional capabilities. In addition to making and receiving calls, the smart phones can synchronize with office e-mail and calendars, access the Internet and serve as a minicomputers by storing programs.
In Dr. LeSar’s busy surgical practice of 12-hour days with multiple surgeries, talking to patients’ family members and doing rounds at the hospital, he doesn’t have time to answer every phone call. Text messaging dramatically increases his efficiency, he said.
Earlier this week, his nurse, who also has an iPhone, sent him a "STAT" text message telling him to go immediately to the emergency room because one of his patients needed help.
"We used to get paged to a number, and you had no idea who was calling you," he said. "Now I have, ‘Go see this patient immediately in the ER,’ so I know exactly where to go and I don’t have to wait on the phone to figure out what to do."
Dr. LeSar’s iPhone also carries a program called Epocrates Rx, a free downloadable drug guide available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Palm Treo smart phones. With programs like this one, doctors, nurses and pharmacists can access detailed information on thousands of medications, almost instantly. There are even programs that allow doctors to see CT scans and MRIs on their smart phone screens.
Chattanooga attorney Hallie McFadden also enjoys that her two children can reach her anytime, even when she’s in court, without disturbing anyone.
Ms. McFadden, 46, uses a Samsung smart phone that in addition to making calls, receives e-mails and operates as her calendar.
"It is my lifeline to my office," she said. "Literally, I take it with me everywhere."
Most attorneys she knows also depend on the devices to stay connected to clients, assistants and law partners.
While these days, the use of smart phones extends beyond the traditional user, bankers now depend on them for myriad different uses.
In addition to checking stock quotes and interest rates, Tracy Haney, a vice president at Cornerstone Bank, uses her Palm Treo to take photos of potential collateral. She stays connected with her clients more than she ever thought she would.
"There’s no such things as bankers’ hours anymore," she said. "Clients call me at all hours on the weekends."
Some of her customers even quit calling the bank because they knew they could reach her on her cell phone.
"It really keeps you there," she said. "It keeps us contacted."
CONTACT: Erica Sniad Morgenstern Epocrates Public Relations PHONE: (650) 227-6907 E-MAIL: pr@epocrates.com WEB: www.epocrates.com All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.