Hospitals and physician practices take note: the next generation of doctors will expect a technology-laden environment when they get out in the real world.

In a survey of 710 medical students by mobile healthcare reference software developer Epocrates, 70 percent said the availability of an EHR would be a "very important" consideration in deciding where they will practice medicine."In contrast to industry predictions, students believe the benefits to medical practices will be the main driver for EHR implementation, rather than government initiatives. This is largely due to early exposure to EHR systems, as more than half of respondents said they are satisfied with the level of training their program provided on EHR use," Epocrates says in a press release.

For the first time, the 2010 "Future Physicians of America" survey--the fifth annual--found that more med students were more likely to turn first to mobile reference tools than to the Internet when they need an answer to a clinical question. In fact, the number of doctors-to-be who look to a mobile device first doubled this year, to about 34 percent. And 80 percent of respondents said they use Epocrates at least once a day.

Driving this move to mobile reference is strong growth in the prevalence of smartphones in med schools. We'll have more on that tomorrow in FierceMobileHealthcare.

If you can't wait that long:
- check out this CMIO story
- see this story from Softpedia
- view the Epocrates survey results (.pptx)

Related Articles:
Experts: Medical schools aren't teaching patient safety
Recent grads face steep challenges in building practices
Physicians and med students continue to embrace smartphones