Phone tracking enrollment. "A lot of the folks who are signing up for the first time are under the impression that they are signing up to receive a text message once a week," said Dr. Robert J. Seder, professor of family medicine at University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore. "This is not the case," he said. "They're signing up for one message every 90 days." The FCC also asked cell phone companies in March 2010 to give consumers more detail about data practices, asking carriers to explain how long data is stored and who can access it. As with text message alerts, it will be up to carriers to determine their own policies and the extent of data they keep. Some companies may choose to notify consumers in addition to including information in their regular cell phone contracts, Seder said. "We really hope that consumers aren't completely surprised by what they learn," Esterhaus said. "And that some of the carriers are transparent with how they're using the data." Some consumers may be worried about having their phone calls, cell tower locations and text messages collected, Seder said. "They should feel reassured that this information is going to be kept private and not going to be shared with third parties." Seder advises cell phone users to choose a company with a strong privacy policy and a clear explanation of how it stores data. "There's the potential that someone's privacy might be compromised, which is pretty alarming," Seder said. Dr. Brian L. Harrison, past president of the New Jersey Medical Society, said some patients may see the information about their health as "intrusive." And the ability to text a doctor from the lock screen of a phone could be seen as violating doctor-patient privacy. But Harrison said he has little to lose by allowing patients to send doctors their contact information via text message. "There's really no reason not to share," he said. "You wouldn't expect them to receive a text when they had an appointment. But texting them when there's an urgent health concern might save someone's life." The technology, which is often combined with a personal computer, allows people to see what's going on with their life from anywhere. It wasn't long ago that many believed that personal computers were an "office in the home," Seder said. But it is now possible to share data from home to the office, and between workplaces. "People have gotten really used to the idea of doing work on their cell phone," Seder said. "You can even work from a bus stop." Seder recalled how his young daughter recently asked him if she could use her cell phone to make a personal call. "My wife reminded her that she's 11 and not allowed to make a call on her own," he said. "It was a reminder of how much things have changed since our daughters were born." As for your kids, use your own judgment. "There's no reason to not use this feature, especially for kids who are really young and need to communicate," Harrison said. "But you should explain to them, don't put anything important on there." When I am working out and am sweating up a storm I cannot use the speaker phone on my phone for fear that someone can hear the sweat dripping from my face. So I guess I am the last to appreciate this feature. Although it is nice, I am really just worried about my conversations. Anyone know how secure it is? If this trend continues we might be talking in another 10 years about cell phones having "ears"! This is really fascinating to me. I love the fact that I could look up a restaurant or store I was going to in the town I live in without having to wait on hold with customer service. Now... to the average user... you will need to understand that you can get in contact with a doctor by clicking on the Doctor ID link that will show up on your phone for the next 2 weeks. If you click on that link you can then enter the doctor's information to contact him/her. That's not very secure at all. If you have children under the age of 14 they will certainly appreciate your decision not to give them access to this feature. As a general rule if you have children and the age of the phone is less than $150... stay away from the kids... you'll be needing those kids as an excuse if something goes wrong with the phone. I am going to hold on to my cell phone for a little while. When my next one comes in May it will be a flip-phone! Wow! I never knew all the goodies my cell phone has to offer. I know my phone has things I don't even know about. So, I think I will be using the phone less and less. Thank you for all the info. Hopefully people will start to use their cell phones for what it was really meant to be, a phone, not a computer. This is one of the more interesting articles I've read recently. Not a big fan of texting, but in this case it's a much less evil option to e-mailing a doctor. It could be used to share important medical conditions or information in emergencies and that way the doctor could respond quickly. I can't say that it's completely secure, though, unless the phone is set up with no name. Then even the carrier would have trouble. But then again, if it's a big hospital, then they probably already have the information from the phone and wouldn't need to keep track of the data anyways. Maybe the carriers will start letting users choose whether they want to allow this information to be transferred to them without having to ask the phone users for permission (as in they ask automatically when a phone is initially switched on). Another problem is that the texting feature is often confused with SMS. In fact the feature to text doctors should probably be labeled differently so that only the message feature will be activated and the SMS feature is disabled. That way it's easy to know how the texting option is different and how it works. Another thing is that I wish more people would go through the settings on their phones so they'd know how their phones work. The only time I ever knew about SMS was when it was sending me messages at regular intervals. I can see the use for an alarm that would email your doctor a status report (heartbeat, fever, etc) or any other emergencies. I'm not sure the ability to be able to text doctors is a good idea. I hope I won't need it. It sounds like just like a 911 button you could push. One thing that concerns me about an SMS is that I don't know if it's encrypted. There's always some kind of glitch in the system with cell phones. What if my cell phone was in my pocket and fell into the garbage can? Someone might be able to retrieve all my messages. The thought of a hacker getting access to my personal phone # and messages is scary. What if an emergency happened while I was using the hospital phone for an x-ray? What if someone stole it? I would lose all my medical information. Thank you, I didn't know a nurse could use my cell phone as well as my doctor. I have never seen an app like this. As far as the article, I have not received an alert. I am sure that the nurse is looking at my phone number now. It is amazing that all these things can be done so quickly. I am sure it