How Mobile Technology is Impacting Healthcare?
Technology is penetrating deeper into every sector across the globe and the healthcare industry is no exception. Over a few years, mobile technology seems to have gained quite a momentum worldwide. Hardly a day passes by when healthcare organizations are not being insulated from the changing trends, especially technological trends. The following post focuses on what mobile technology is, how it is beneficial in the healthcare realm, and how it seems to be improving several avenues in the healthcare realm. It may quite interest you to know that the healthcare industry, especially the newly revised one incorporating technology seems to have significant potential like never before. Let us find out more about it!
Now this is a pretty known fact that patients no longer have to wait in lines for hours and hours and suffer on a serious note due to lack of instant treatment. The latest digital ecosystem ensures that both patients and healthcare professionals do not have to face any form of inconvenience. In the present scenario, it is pretty easy to connect with your preferred doctor right at the tip of your finger using your smartphone device, which turns out to be quite bliss!
Understanding the Scenario
What are healthcare systems mainly used for? Well, they are meant to prevent diseases, detect them at quite an early stage, investigate or diagnose them properly, and come up with a safe treatment. And this is how mobile technology comes into play. I had read this somewhere, “Crisis breeds the strength to cope with it”. All thanks to new and emerging technological trends, we do know how to fight it better now.
The concept of mhealth, (mobile health) has been pretty much in vogue lately. Mhealth refers to the use of mobile devices such as smartphones, and wearables to ensure seamless management among patients and healthcare professionals. By harnessing the unconventional power of mobile technology, several invaluable point-of-care tools have been developed and deployed. It may quite interest you to know that in the present scenario, there are now over 400000 healthcare apps that are safe and efficient in terms of use. Down below I would like to mention some important benefits of using such healthcare apps:
Used to track mental health
Patient’s treatment
Promote healthier lifestyle
Schedule appointments
Women’s Health
Preventive diagnosis
Patients diets
Accessing medical databases and reference materials
Reminders for prescription refills, drug interactions, and missed medications
Preventive diagnosis
You see change is the only constant, this happens to be true for every sector, and in healthcare technology, we have seen changes from old traditional systems to new, advanced, robust healthcare apps to electronic healthcare records (EHRs) to home healthcare.
It may quite interest you to know that the global mhealth app market is more likely to reach US$102.35 billion by 2023 and why not since there are more than 53000 apps available on the Google Play Store 53500 iOS healthcare apps. And trust me these numbers keep on increasing now and then. With the help of mhealth, it is possible to monitor a patient’s vital signs remotely. Just by listening to the patient’s breath, the AI tech makes it possible to predict whether he or she has asthma or not. Also, different interoperable software happens to send and receive real-time information across multiple providers and platforms. Further, I would like to mention some crucial benefits offered by mhealth.
Control and Self-monitoring
Enhanced Communication
Remote Patient Monitoring
Reduced healthcare expenses
Optimized medical data
Records Management
Team Collaboration
Drug Database and Prescription
Performance Updates
Improved Health Outcomes
Types of mHealth Apps
Clinical and diagnostic apps
These kinds of apps assist doctors as well as physicians in collecting relevant health data, analyzing and sharing it seamlessly. Not just doctors but even lab practitioners can view results, check electronic health records, and offer digital imaging services. Mhealth apps tend to verify symptoms and offer relevant first-aid answers to your medical questions.
Remote monitoring apps
The next type of mhealth application is a remote monitoring app. The following type of application tends to assist patients especially the ones who are unable to get physical care from the practitioners. Here virtual care is given at home. Professionals ensure to keep tabs on the patient's heart rate, oxygen level, blood pressure, and other healthcare issues; all this is possible without going to the clinic now and then.
Productivity apps
The next type of mhealth application is a productivity app. These kinds of apps used in the healthcare industry are used to increase the productivity and efficiency of healthcare organizations. These kinds of apps are designed for home healthcare scheduling, mobile charting, and remote dictation. Such apps focus on offering these functions while maintaining HIPAA compliance.
Daily-reminder apps
The next type of mhealth is daily reminder apps. As the name implies, this kind of app tends to remind patients of their regular appointments and assist them in keeping tabs on their daily medications. These kinds of apps might seem a bit basic but they are way more crucial, especially in today's crucial times.
Video Communication apps
The next kind of mhealth is video communication apps. Virtual video consultations are pretty much in demand these days. Such applications turn out to be better communicators and foster amazing patient care like never before. For timely care and attention, these types of mhealth apps are worth considering.
Prescription apps
The next kind of app is a prescription app. A doctor tends to treat so many patients at a time, so chances are high that they might forget to prescribe the right medicine and dosages. In such cases, prescription apps can be a great blessing, patients can even set regular reminders and set dosages to avoid any side effects or even cancel prescriptions whenever they want to.
Mental health apps
The next is mental health apps. As the name suggests, this kind of app tends to make therapy way more accessible, flexible, and highly effective. With the help of these apps, it becomes way easier to combat depression, stress, anxiety, sleep disturbances and so more. Here such an app includes pre-recorded meditations, breathing exercises, gamification elements, and a lot more.
In addition to all this mhealth apps are highly secured. You see large amounts of data are generated now and then which ultimately increases the risk of cyber attacks. And these kinds of security breaches can also result in hampering the financial stability of healthcare organizations. So any mhealth app developed today is made sure that it is highly secured and safe from unwanted bugs and malware.
Everyone’s moving towards a mobile future
Possibilities with mhealth are endless. In the upcoming years, we all are going to witness a wave of endless opportunities for using technology sincerely in the healthcare realm.