Medical reference software developer Epocrates released the results from its fifth annual "Future Physicians of America" survey, which polled 700 medical students about their technology habits, expectations and preferences. About 80 percent of those medical students surveyed are set to be practicing physicians within the next two years.

Of those surveyed, nearly 70 percent owned either an Apple iPhone or iPod touch which marked a 39 percent increase over the findings from Epocrates' 2009 survey. BlackBerry and Android devices make up the second and third most popular devices for medical students, the study found.

Interestingly, more than 40 percent of future physicians plan to upgrade to a newer smartphone during the next 12 months and more than 60 percent plan to buy an iPhone, while almost 25 percent will buy an Android device.

Some 70 percent of the students surveyed also said that EHRs will be a very important deciding factor in where they practice medicine. Students have high expectations for EHRs. Students believe that benefits to medical practices will drive EHR implementation and not government initiatives.

Last year, Epocrates' 2009 survey found that nearly 60 percent of those medical studnets who did not have a smartphone planned on buying either an iPhone or an iPod touch within the next year. At the time, those medical students surveyed who had smartphones were using iPhones/iPod touch (45 percent), Palm PDAs (15 percent), Palm smartphones (12 percent), BlackBerry devices (12 percent), Windows Mobile (7 percent), PPC (6 percent), or Other (8 percent).

Android didn't even make the list.

More from Epocrates 2010 Future Physicians Survey here