Patient Data on Your Smartphone

Many physicians carry smartphones. Whether it's an Apple iPhone, a BlackBerry, a Palm, or a Windows Mobile phone, it's a smartphone. Now, we also have physicians using Google Android, Symbian, and other smartphone operating systems.

If you use e-mail to communicate about confidential patient information, I hope you're locking your phone. If you ever lose your phone and someone happens to retrieve that sensitive data, then you may want to run away and hide. Many healthcare professionals have patient data on their smartphones or PDAs. Some may even forget that it's there. Medical students are often jotting notes and recording procedures on their PDAs and smartphones. How often do you remember to go back and delete all that information after you're finished with your clinical rotation?

Lock Your Phone

If you carry a smartphone, do you keep it locked? I don't mean the simple "slide to unlock" feature found on the Apple iPhone. I'm talking about a security feature that includes a password so that others can't access your phone.

Many clinicians keep very confidential data on their smartphones (even patient information) and this may become a liability if you accidentally lose your device. Data security breaches are occurring all over the country and it's becoming increasingly important to ensure that we're doing everything possible to secure and protect patient data. Even if you don't have any important patient data on your phone, make sure to always lock it so that you protect yourself.