2. Literature review This section describes the initial phase of using mobile technologies in healthcare sector presenting the review of past and current apps and innovations. Also, this describes the issues surrounding the development of a mobile app for healthcare. It also studies the general questions faced from the exploration of health services in Nepal. The main aim of this project is to develop a healthcare app for a mobile that best suits the general people and healthcare providers in Nepal by further investigation based on its availability, accessibility and usability. There are 75 districts in Nepal, but the most developed are the three districts of Kathmandu Lalitpur and Bhaktapur within Kathmandu valley. Because of the time …show more content…
It not only started a mobile banking but has changed the lives of people. (TRANSFORMING RURAL ECONOMIES THROUGH MOBILE BANKING IN NEPAL, 2013) (Shankar, 2010)(Regmi, 2015) (Dixit, 2013) So, it is time to create another initiative from this and launch a mobile health service in Nepal that can reach people as the mobile banking has done. As such, this raises more questions such as: 1. What is the condition of health service in Nepal? Is a mobile health an answer to current issues? 2. Are the measures in place to launch such initiative? 3. Are the health organisations aware of mobile health launched in other countries and ready to adopt them? (Shankar, 2010) (Dixit, 2013) 2.1. Review of some of the mobile technologies used in Health sector Healthcare professionals require being highly mobile because of the nature of their work, Working in various locations such as ICUs, operation theatre, emergency departments etc. Hence communication between healthcare professionals is very important. (Ammenwerth, et al., 2000) (Bardram, 2005) (Banitas, et al., 2004), (Burdette & Herchline, 2008) in the 1990s Healthcare professionals used to have pagers for mobile communication until the mobile phones were widely available (Burdette & Herchline, 2008). The presence of mobile Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in the 1990s enabled healthcare professionals to organize their
The use of mobile technology in the healthcare industry has exploded in the last ten years. Mobile health or mHealth, provides an entire new aspect of the relationship between patients and their doctors and other medical providers. Mobile devices place important and critical information into a medical professional’s hands in real-time. Doctors can monitor a patient’s condition more frequently, allowing them to make better and more informed decisions and diagnoses.
Mhealth has reached the poorest of communities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). More than 9 million patients email their physician in 2009 (Digital Health Care, 2010), because patients’ busy lifestyles do not allow time for an office visit for non-emergent health conditions. . In recent years, the expansion of mobile health (mhealth) technologies, including health text messaging, mobile phone applications, remote monitoring, and portable sensors, have changed the way health care is being delivered in the U.S. and globally (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). Patients like the convenience of communicating with his or her physician through advanced technology.
Unfortunately, along with the good must come the bad. For every positive aspect of smartphones and social media in healthcare related settings, there is an equally negative aspect. One pitfall of smartphones in healthcare is directly related to one of the positive aspects of smartphones: the availability of medical
Improving access to healthcare facilities is only a part of the solution. With the ownership of cell phones becoming increasingly common in Nigeria, we can use these smartphones to empower Nigerians with knowledge on disease symptoms, treatments, and activity. Having knowledge on at hand can help with reducing misconceptions and stigmas of modern healthcare, stay up to date with disease trends or outbreaks, and hopefully prevent people from going to the hospital.
The emergency department in the modern hospital is one of the most complex clinical settings to operate. According to Johnson, Sensei, & Capasso (2012), this department is an intersection of the diagnosis and treatment of emergency cases. As a result, it experiences immense volumes of patients every day. However, in most hospitals, patients visit the facilities with an indication of what they might be suffering from. Specifically, they use their iPhones to get a list of conditions that they might be having (Boncana, 2016). This method of detection has come to be known as mHealth. In this regard, mHealth, rather mobile health, is a method that patients use to enhance their health and medical practices via the use of mobile technology. The cell phones used in this approach are equipped with medical/health software, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and patient monitoring devices.
The health care industry has become increasingly reliant on technology. From medical translation tools to mobile apps, these devices are helping healthcare institutions save money and improve patient treatment.
Despite significant progress in recent years, service delivery in the health sector remains weak. Due to lack of trained health care professional and staffs, the existing health care facilities are being underutilized. Based on different studies by WHO and Ministry of Health of Nepal there are many plans and policies to be executed in the next three years to bring dramatic change between the figures of Health Indicator targets. New initiative includes prevention and control of venereal diseases, introduction of
As handheld devices are becoming more pervasive, the variety of applications (apps) available for them is increasing exponentially. There are apps designed for virtually every task, pastime and work endeavor, including nursing. While some hospitals are limiting the use of smart phones on the job because of security risks, others are subscribing to suites of applications to make available to their providers. Unbound Medicine provides a suite of applications under the name Nursing Central, along with other nursing related apps (Krichke 2011).
Technology has always played a crucial role in healthcare innovation. Over the past several decades healthcare has experienced an explosion of innovations designed to improve life expectancy and quality of life. Mobile technology is only one of several that empower patients and careers by giving them more control over their health and making them less dependent on Health care professionals for health information (Haughom, n.d.). They can use digital technology to research information online, share experiences and identify treatment options. The most
Healthcare adoption is taking more time than anticipated. Barriers have proposed a problem, which simply are becoming the source of implementing this application. Bandwidth, education, leadership and technology, (B.E.L.T.) are the four major components being used when implementing. In the rural, isolated and under served regions, bandwidth becomes a barrier. Changes in the patient, provider approach seems to hinder this implementation as well. Using telehealth seems to to have limited capacity to to address health problems and
The clarity of this paper addresses the significance and positive impact of ehealth globally. For example, according to Piette et al. (2012), reliable health services are in high demand worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The utilization of ehealth systems can support the objectives in ways that are economically feasible as well as sustainable. Health planners are also looking for innovative ways to improve the outcomes of health care and public health initiatives while remaining cost effective (Piette et al.,2012). It is imperative that the health system address the needs of diverse populations, provide high-quality services even in remote and resource-poor environments and improve training and support for health
There is a direct correlation between the evolution of human connections and the advancement of technology. In this example, it is clear that the creation of the internet played a key role in the shift from a paternalistic physician-patient relationship to a mutualistic physician-patient relationship. Without widespread use of the internet, this change may not have occurred at all. In the years that followed the creation of the internet, modern technologies continued to change the healthcare experience, specifically, the ways patients interact with their physicians. Mobile healthcare apps and self-service kiosks that administer tests such as EKGs and take measurements of blood pressure and weight are quickly relieving nurses and physicians of their most basic duties while making healthcare more accessible and efficient (Jayanthi). Additionally, the creation and implementation of Electronic Health Records, many argue, introduce a third party to the patient-physician relationship reducing the weight given to direct communication with the patient in the diagnostic process. Another point of technological progression in healthcare is “telemedicine”, long distance communication between doctors and patients. This communication, which is usually performed over a video-chat, poses many promising benefits to healthcare. However, this dynamic may sacrifice the thoroughness and personal nature of the traditional physical exam. It
While software selection criteria were not in scope for this effort, it does warrant discussion on the overall availability of specialty software for the medical industry on iOS, Android and Windows platforms. Currently, most of the “MCA’s” or Medical Clinical Assistant platforms operate in a Windows-only environment, as do most of the key medical records and billing platforms in the medical field. The cost of custom software development to build a mobile solution is far beyond the budget of most local hospitals and not an endeavor to be undertaken lightly.
In Nepal, modern health services have a short history. Until the early 1960s, only a few urban hospitals and rural dispensaries were available. Since the late 1980s, thousands of health institutions have been established at the Village Development Committee (VDC) level. During the past 15 years, Nepal has achieved significant progress in the field of child and maternal mortality and eradicating polio and meningitis. That has been an encouragingmove toward achieving Millennium Development Goal targets. To ensure universal health coverage, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has a plan to set up health centers within a half an hour walking distance of each village. The government has started providing free basic medicine for all citizens through public health institution. However, it is generally impossible for rural people to find all prescribed medicines throughout the entire year due to shipping difficulties and medicine shortages.The government has been providing basic healthcare services through sub-health post,thebottom level of healthcare institutions in Nepal.
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)- Improve healthcare delivery by making architectural corrections in existing public health systems , NRHM main objectives is to improve health status of the people, Ensure universal access to quality health care services, Increase public expenditure on health, Reduce health inequities and ensure greater accountability and responsiveness, Ensure decentralization and district level planning and management of health programmes , Ensure community participation in planning and management , Ensure all public health facilities attain Indian Public Health Standards- in terms of services delivered, human resource deployed , infrastructure, equipment and supplies, Induct multi-disciplinary skills into district health systems- management skills, financial skills, IT and data analysis skills, epidemiological skills etc. A health management information system is an essential management tool to achieve these goals- to be able to monitor how far we have travelled, and where the gaps are, To ensure that there is a continuous flow of good quality disaggregated data on health of populations and health care services to assist in local planning , programme implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation.