Mobile communication is an integral and growing part of every aspect of modern life, including healthcare. Fast and secure communication between care team members can measurably improve clinical efficiency as well as patient outcomes—this is a given.

Imagine your grandmother is hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. To everybody’s relief, she receives state-of-the-art medical care in a top-notch hospital a mere 10 miles from home. On discharge day, she is sent home with a long list of instructions, new medications, and a recommendation she follow up with her primary care doctor within the week.

As 2013 comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on those who have stood out as real heroes in 2013: Groups who still champion the solo physicians and the right for physicians to remain autonomous, reimbursed fairly, and have their scope of practice respected amongst colleagues in the greater medical community. Our state and local medical societies are the winners this year – but are surprisingly under scrutiny by the very folks they are helping the most.

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” I wouldn’t have known what he meant right out of residency, thrust into my first “leadership” role. What does it mean after all to be a leader in medicine? Many, like me, were considered a team leader by default, simply because of a degree.

Electronic medical record (EMR) integration is certainly a hot topic for any technology in the healthcare world today. The push for integrating mobile communication solutions with the EMR seems logical, but perhaps there are some bigger questions to answer first.