According to bloggers at The Healthcare Marketing Exchange, “quick responses, or QR Codes, could be the fastest-growing marketing and advertising tool in quite a while. And it could be your new best friend for more efficient hospital marketing as well as a top trend with regards to the newest physician service tools.”

QR Codes are the small, square images that look sort of like bar-codes on paper and in other media. Users of QR Codes can scan them by using their smart phones and link them to websites, or receive specialized messages, or a multitude of information, instantly.

A company called Comscore recently published a study that had found that “more than 14 million adults in the U.S. used QR Codes in the first half of 2011, and that number is expected to rise exponentially by this year’s end.”

Physicians are using them to better the ever-changing world of physician services. Booking appointments, viewing patient testimonials, and educating patients are just some of the benefits that physicians are utilizing through QR Codes to enhance patient care efforts.

“Penn State’s Hershey Medical center allows users to download maps and directions to its facility via QR code, while Nebraska Medical Center provides a full video tour of its hospitals with its QR codes” as reported in a recent healthcare article.