Mike Cuesta, director of marketing at CareCloud, a Web-based medical practice management software firm in Miami, offered some tips for medical practices when it comes to creating and maintaining websites.

Movie surgeons (most recently, the sports doc played by Bill Hader in this summer’s hit comedy “Trainwreck”) have long endearingly or flamboyantly operated to tunes, a case of art imitating life. Now, doctors at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston report musical accompaniment may result in speedier surgery and neater stitches. The researchers asked 15 residents in plastic surgery to stitch up pigs’ feet, with and without music. (Pig feet are easy to get and pig skin is similar to human skin, the authors said.)

The results, published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, found that those who listened to their favorite music finished the task 8% faster. Judges reviewed the work without knowing which operations had been performed to music and ranked their quality on a 1 to 5 scale.

Senior residents were faster, with a 10% drop in surgical time. Authors Shelby Lies and Andrew Zhang said that could mean substantial savings: “A 10% reduction in operative time per hour equals savings of $396 per hour.”

Surgeons who listened to music did slightly better when graded on multiple measures, including suture-knot visibility or unraveling, and uniform appearance.

Residents were randomly assigned to hear music or operate in silence. Researchers than asked residents to do the task again, but flipped the musical assignment. Notably, residents were allowed to pick a preferred type of music on Pandora.

Taste varied, the authors said. “Genres of music preferred by the study participants included rock, hip-hop, pop, Latin and classical, with a diverse distribution.”

The company Research Now conducted a survey that looked at how mobile health applications and the mobile health industry is affecting patient care and physician workflow. Research Now polled a total of 1,000 mHealth app users and 500 medical professionals. The results show that 86 percent of healthcare professionals believe mobile health apps increase their knowledge on a patient’s medical condition.

Additionally, nearly half of surveyed providers – 46 percent – felt that mHealth apps actually strengthen their relationship with their patients. Three out of four polled medical care professionals – 76 percent – have suggested that mobile health tools assist patients with managing chronic medical conditions.

Additionally, three out of five surveyed physicians and medical staff help patients who are at high risk of developing serious health problems. As previously stated, fitness trackers can help patients exercise more regularly and lose weight, which would reduce their risk of heart disease.

Additionally, more than half of those surveyed believe that mHealth applications can help consumers who are healthy remain at an optimal level of health. Also, nearly half – 48 percent – of survey takers think that the technologies within the mobile health industry may be able to help patients who were recently discharged from a hospital make a better transition to home-based care.

Most importantly, nearly all survey takers – 96 percent – believe that mobile health apps “improve their quality of life.” In addition, the survey illustrates that users of mHealth tools already improve their wellness and lifestyle through these technologies. For example, 60 percent use the tools to monitor their workouts while nearly half – 49 percent – use apps to record their calorie intake.

However, the Research Now survey also uncovered that healthcare professionals have not shown strong adoption of mHealth apps with only 16 percent currently using these tools. Nonetheless, nearly half of medical professionals surveyed indicate they are planning on utilizing mobile health applications within the next five years.

The mobile health industry is truly making an impact on improving the lives of everyday citizens. Technologies like health apps, wearable devices, and remote monitoring tools are revolutionizing the healthcare industry on a constant basis.

“New developments in machine intelligence will make us far far smarter as a result, for everyone on the planet,” Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, said in a public statement. “It’s because our smart phones are basically supercomputers.”

“Around 400 million people in the last year got a smartphone,” Schmidt continued. “If you think that’s a big deal, imagine the impact on that person in the developing world.”

Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of the Microsoft Corporation, also stated, “I’m most grounded on the role of technology. Ultimately to me it’s about the human capital and the human potential and technology empowers humans to do great things. You have to be optimistic about what technology can do in the hands of humans.”

Kiera Berger has a major in genetics and cell biology, a solid GPA and a score on the Medical College Admission Test that’s about average for science undergraduates.

She applied to 10 medical schools, and every one turned her down.

The University of Minnesota student had discovered a cold reality that’s striking many hopeful seniors this commencement season: The number of medical school applicants is increasing much faster than the number of openings, and being average isn’t good enough anymore.

Last year, more than 43,000 students applied to the nation’s medical schools. Only 42 percent of them got in — the lowest acceptance rate in more than a decade. The number of graduates — 18,200 last year — has risen over the last 10 years, but only modestly.

That bottleneck worries many health care analysts, who foresee a shortage of doctors over the next decade as the population ages and the Affordable Care Act increases the number of Americans with health insurance. By one estimate, the nation will be short 90,000 physicians in the next decade. In Minnesota, the estimate is 2,000.

But many programs, including the University of Minnesota Medical School, are at capacity. The class size on the U’s Twin Cities campus expanded from 165 to 170 after the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) called for an increase in admissions a few years ago. But vice dean for education Dr. Mark Rosenberg said it can’t grow any more without adding residencies, the training programs where students get practical experience.

Josh Bush is a U junior who hopes to apply to medical school.

Josh Bush is a U junior who hopes to apply to medical school.
In order to practice medicine in the United States, students must complete a residency after they finish medical school. Medicare is the largest source of funding for residencies, but a cap on federal funding has created a residency squeeze at hundreds of hospitals.

“Even if we train more, unless we increase the number of residency positions, it’s not going to do us any good,” Rosenberg said.

To avert a doctor shortage, the AAMC in 2006 called on schools to increase admissions 30 percent by 2015. Officials say the schools are on track to reach that goal by 2017, but meanwhile, the applicant pool continues to improve and competition has become fierce.

The deadline for students to accept admission offers is May 15. Afterward, schools can send acceptance letters to wait-listed students if they have spots to fill. Come June 3, the rolling admissions process begins, and rejected students can try again amid an even more competitive pool.

Looking at plan B

From the moment she started college, Amelia Black did everything right.

In her four years at the U, the microbiology senior attained Latin honors, researched in a malaria lab, volunteered at a children’s hospital, studied abroad in Australia and shadowed physicians on a trip to Guatemala. When she applied to 17 med schools, she got into four and was wait-listed for two.

Students like Black are the “professional athletes of science,” according to Tricia Todd, assistant director for the Health Careers Center at the U.

“These students have to be on their game from the day they set foot on this campus if they’re going to be successful getting into med school,” she said.

But four years increasingly isn’t enough time to accomplish everything top applicants need to do, said associate dean of admissions Dimple Patel at the U’s Medical School.

More students are taking a “gap year” after college to broaden their experience; the average applicant age is going up, reaching 24 in 2012.

Now Patel encourages students who don’t get into med school to take a year off for additional preparation and to decide if becoming a doctor is their best choice. She urges them to think of a plan B.

For Phillip Thomas, a gap year paid off. After getting a pile of rejection letters in his first cycle, he took the time to work in a lab, volunteer at a children’s hospital and relentlessly study for the MCAT. He did so well on the test the second time that Kaplan Test Prep hired him to teach classes.

Thomas is now a third-year medical student at the U who got a spot on the admissions committee so he can review applications and help other students like him. Applicants, he said, need to convince a med school that medicine is the right career for them.

“I wanted to make sure that my application reflects my desire to be here and my goal that I want to be a physician,” he said. “This is what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

Finding a different dream

When Todd recognizes a student who may not have what it takes or be the right fit, she sits down with them to have a “courageous conversation.”

“Medicine isn’t the right place for you,” she said she tells students, “or if you’re going to go into medicine you’re going to have to change your portfolio and it’s going to have to look a lot stronger than it does now.”

She finds that many students are on the right track; for others, she tries to help them find another career in the field — public health at a state agency, for example, or physician assistant.

For Kiera Berger, becoming a doctor used to be her only dream. Everything else, she said, felt like settling for less.

To explore other career options and build research experience, she got an entry-level position at a genetic testing company in Wisconsin. She’ll work there for at least two years before applying to medical school again.

“It’s still probably at the top of my list,” she said, “but it used to be the only thing on my list.”

Rebecca Harrington is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune.