Dark Reading: From Pagers To Text Messages: Healthcare’s Next Security Challenge

By Kelly Jackson Higgins

Survey of hospital IT professionals shows texting to replace paging in next three years

Paging all doctors: You’ll be checking text messages rather than your pages within the next three years, a new study finds. More than 70 percent of IT decision-makers in hospitals in North America say they expect secure text messaging to replace paging in the next three years, as smartphones become more of a tool in the hospital environment. Close to half of the respondents say they expect texting to be used for communicating with patients in the next 12 months, and 65 percent say that will be the case within three years. “Our 2012 survey indicates that most IT leaders believe text messaging has tremendous potential to impact patient care, extending well beyond care team communications,” says Ed Gaudet, chief marketing officer at Imprivata.