Healthcare Mobile Apps/ mhealth: Mobile Technology in Healthcare, or mHealth, is a rapidly developing factor in health care today.No matter where in the world you live, whether you are talking about patients, consumers, or healthcare providers, mobile is revolutionizing the future of healthcare. According to a recent survey, 83 percent of physicians in the U.S. already use mobile technology in healthcare or mHealth to provide patient care.
Mobile technology in healthcare can be used to send patient reminders and decrease the number of missed appointments, which leads to a reduction in costs.
For patients, mobile devices are the gateway to improving engagement with healthcare providers. A full 31 percent of cell phone owners report having used their mobile device to access healthcare information, up from 17 percent two years ago. Observing lab test results, getting pinged concerning upcoming appointments and maybe even be getting a video to consult with a nurse from home are all on the desire lists for those who run their lives via smartphones.
In other words, mobile health technology or mhealth is the use of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to deliver health care and preventive health services.
The application of mobile devices by healthcare professionals has transformed many regards to clinical practice. Mobile devices have become commonplace in healthcare settings, leading to rapid growth in the expansion of medical software applications for these platforms. Various apps are now available to support healthcare professionals with many important tasks, such as health record maintenance and access; information and time management; communications and consulting; reference and information gathering; clinical decision-making; patient management and monitoring; and medical education and training.
Mobile devices and healthcare mobile apps provide many benefits for healthcare professionals, perhaps most significantly increased access to point-of-care tools, which has been shown to support better clinical decision-making and improved patient outcomes. Despite, some health care professionals remain hesitant to adopt their use. Despite the benefits they offer, better standards and validation practices regarding mobile medical apps need to be established to ensure the decent use and integration of these more sophisticated tools into medical practice. These measures will raise the barrier to entry into the healthcare mobile apps market, increasing the quality and safety of the apps currently available for use by healthcare professionals.
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Healthcare Application of Mobile Technology
Mobile devices have formulated a new communication channel connecting healthcare service providers and patients. However, the advantages of mobile devices in healthcare go beyond communication channels. They enable better coordination, improve diagnostic accuracy, and build a bridge of trust.
Despite the benefits, lots of healthcare providers are unwilling to integrate mobile phones and tablets into their day-to-day practice. The reason for reluctance might be resistance to change. But some providers have a lack of sufficient standards and policies in smart-phone use in healthcare can contribute to protection risks. So it’s necessary to understand the benefits and how they can be organized without making any harm.
Greater point-of-care coordination
In a conventional hospital, while a patient with an acute condition is discharged after the initial treatment, the patient is informed and instructions by a nurse. The nurse demonstrates how the prescriptions should be conducted as well as the investigation procedure and follow-up process. There is no way to guarantee that the patient has understood the instructions or is following the procedures accurately. Poor information, product name doubtfulness, and misunderstanding the product use instructions can cause these medication errors. This can commence to recurrence of the disease and negatively impact patient’s health.
Mobile technology in healthcare is transforming this dynamic by healthcare mobile apps. Doctors and nurses can now organize better with the patient regarding the diagnosis, medication and the follow-up process. They can also observe whether the patient has understood the instructions correctly. This point-of-care coordination is offering a huge difference in patient recovery and reducing the number of re-admissions. It is streamlining the method within the inpatient and outpatient care.
Through patient management
Initially, healthcare providers had inadequate access to their patients and their data. There was no way to observe the effect of the medicine.
Mobile technology in healthcare is changing this dynamic by the medical app. Smartphones, tablets, and wearables are being employed to take regular vitals and have logged on patients. Physicians and nurses can review up on the patient directly working mobile devices which can show how to conduct a procedure. Through the adoption of mobile devices, healthcare providers are becoming a more active role in supervising their patients in the right direction. It has been effective in enhancing the quality of care dramatically by the use of mobile health apps.
Enhances physician efficiency
Profoundly performing physicians are the backbone of an effective healthcare system. But it is a high-stress job. Physicians frequently criticize that they have to spend a lot of time in data entry and other organizational tasks. Only 27 percent of their moment is spent in patient care. Smartphones and tablets are promoting physicians to solve problems faster with less stress by mobile health apps.
Physicians can adopt mobile technology in healthcare apps to document patient history with insignificant errors. These devices implement better access to advanced drug information and thus help make better settlements. Overall, the application of health monitoring apps in healthcare has increased physician performance and secured better patient care.
Develops diagnostic exactness
Keeping track of patient records was a huge burden on the healthcare industry using paper. Computers helped reduce the difficulty. This has led to an improvement in diagnostic accuracy. According to mHealth statistics, 93% of doctors believe that mobile health apps can enhance the patient’s health.
Physicians and nurses are able to keep accurate and detailed notes. Fewer errors are made due to inappropriate handwritings. Mobile health apps can run automated checks on prescriptions and resolutions. As a result, prescription mistakes have gone down significantly. As bedside tools, these devices are helping understand the causes and symptoms of pathogens and infectious complications faster.
Provisions for customizations
Doctors deal with extensive numbers of patients every day. It’s difficult for them to provide individual attentiveness to each patient in a timely manner. Medical apps for doctors are helping practitioners custom plan remedies without spending a huge amount of time.
Doctors can use patient data to create profiles and categorize them. But the convenience of Mobile Technology in Healthcare performs it easy for physicians to create individual-level customization without spending too much time. These profiles can help doctors pinpoint the optimum solution for each patient.
Telepresence and remote assistance will complement face-to-face
Physicians and nurses can examine the patient’s condition remotely by practicing HD cameras. Regular real-time communication with the provider and patients also builds compatibility.
Real-time communication is also developing collaboration, consulting and sharing of information globally. Specialists from different corners of the world can consult each other in real-time to learn and share. Information acquired through mobile health apps will take on a greater role in diagnostic and prescribing decisions.
Physical Fitness or Training
Physical Fitness apps are usually combined with social media or have a social aspect made of them. For instance, users of the popular running app- MapMyRun can use their phone’s built-in GPS to track their mileage traveled, elevation variations, speed, and time of each workout, then assign that information with buddies through the mobile health app itself. MapMyRun can provide physicians and care providers to monitor the health activities of patients.
Pregnancy tracking applications
Pregnancy tracking applications provide expectant mothers with guidelines and updates for their pregnancy that they might normally receive from a doctor. The availability of mobile health app that offers health information is a double-edged sword for the healthcare industry.
Health Information
Mobile health apps are a valuable resource for consumers that offer health information. Apps that give nutritional data on foods or calorie
Calorie monitoring apps are particularly common right now, which contain caloric information for everything you could imagine wanting to eat. These applications of these mobile health apps to record their diet and exercise habits.