The mobile health industry is growing like gangbusters.  More than 80% of physicians use smartphones and medical apps such as ePocrates, EyeChart, and Medscape.  These are just three of the most popular apps.  Did you know there are more than 10,000 medical and healthcare apps available for download in the iTunes Store?  According to the INFOGRAPHIC embedded below, this makes health apps the third-fastest growing app category among iPhone and Android users.  Its no wonder more and more physicians believe the right mobile health apps can help patient care.

Recent studies, including an employee satisfaction report from APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald, point to several benefits that arise from social intranets as enterprises deploy new social communication solutions.  Enterprise social networks, when configured and used properly, are becoming the main knowledge repositories and communication hubs in the enterprise. They are replacing corporate intranets as the most comprehensive and reliable places to find information about the company, its processes and procedures, and the people who work there. 

Vegas baby, Vegas.  That’s right, the Ozmosis team is heading to Las Vegas for HIMSS12 and simplifyMD, HealthcareScene.com and Influential Networks to network and mingle with our healthcare social media friends. That’s the #hcsm, #HealthIT and #HITsm crowd for all you Twitter newbies. 

Join Ozmosis & Ogilvy Public Relations Wednesday, February 15th for a star studded discussion on the continuing role social media plays in healthcare as part of Social Media Week in Washington, DC.  As we look back on the impact social media has had on the healthcare industry over the past year, we see dramatic growth in social media adoption by health care consumers, providers, and all the various organizations engaged in the healthcare ecosystem. While the industry has taken a giant leap forward into the world of social tools and collaborative models, we’ve only scratched the surface of what is yet to come.

The January edition of our newsletter is available here: Ozmosis Insights. In this edition, we examine McKinsey's 5th annual survey on the way organizations use social tools & technologies, share our predictions on how four key social business trends (mobile, social, big data and social analytics) will converge in 2012, explore why every healthcare organization needs a social profile following Google's privacy policy change and incorporation of content from Google+ in its search results and ask pharmaceutical manufacturers to stop waiting for comprehensive social media guidance from the FDA. If you'd like to receive future editions of the Ozmosis Insights newsletter, click here to signup.

In case you missed it, Google really is organizing all the word's data.  This is no longer a clever marketing ploy but the stark reality of the digital world in which we live.  In an era where more than 61% of all adults search for health information online, we need to sit up and take notice when Google makes significant changes to its search results and privacy policy.   Given the outcry this week regarding Google's privacy policy and this month's integration of Google+, let's step back and review a few facts.