According to a recent report from Manhattan Research, by 2012 the percentage of U.S. physicians using smartphones will increase to 81 percent. The current rate of penetration is 64 percent, according to the research firm's report “Physicians in 2012: The Outlook for On Demand, Mobile, and Social Digital Media.”

Manhattan believes that as physicians currently using smartphones age their use of smartphone technologies will become more proficient and "the Internet will become physicians’ primary professional resource," the research firm stated.

"Mobile will become even more indispensable to physicians as they start to expand the range activities they perform on these devices to include administrative tasks and patient monitoring," Manhattan's press release stated.  “By 2012, all physicians will walk around with a stethoscope and a smart mobile device, and there will be very few professional activities that physicians won’t be doing on their handhelds."

For more on the report, read the release here.