Opinion: Healthcare apps could be doctor's best friend

You can't change a lifestyle in 10 minutes from a jail-cell exam room. Yet every day we physicians willingly step into these cramped interrogation rooms and, like well-paid hamsters on wheels, churn through 20, 30 or more patients. We spend these 10-minute visits nibbling around the edges of lifestyle-related conditions and ailments, with little lasting effect. The results of these rushed visits may include "decreased patient satisfaction, increased patient turnover, or inappropriate prescribing." Reimbursement formulas encourage physicians to perform much more lucrative procedures. They enable physicians to bypass the time required to really help patients make the changes needed and move quickly on to another patient.