Improving Health Care through Smartphones and Apps

The days are gone when a doctor walked into a patient's room and grabbed the paper chart at the end of his bed to check his medical history. Increasingly, they offer real-time care monitoring, allowing users to share health data with a doctor from a Smartphone. Some apps even allow doctors to virtually assess, diagnose and treat patients without ever having them leave home.

The boom in technology and mobile devices has led to an explosion of medical apps. Today there are hundreds of health-related apps available for download on androids, iphones, and other digital devices. Some apps strictly offer medical information but others offer consumers tips on diet, nutrition, best exercises for weight loss, healthy eating, the nearest emergency room, and what types of doctors are available in their facility. There are over 30 apps for diabetes alone and the same applies to other common chronic disorders like high blood pressure, obesity, cancer, arthritis and so on. Today, even cosmetic surgeons offer advanced anti-aging treatments that enable you to rejuvenate your skin.

Mobile health (mHealth) is the practice of public healthcare and medicine supported by mobile devices. The use of mobile communication technology in health care is rapidly expanding as mobile phones, tablet computers, personal data assistants (PDA) are becoming well developed. The field of mHealth has emerged as a subdivision of electronic health (eHealth) for the use of information and communication technology. In industrialized areas, the use of mHealth applications has been very successful and is even emerging in recent years for low-income areas due to the rise of smartphones. As the online health information conditions continue to become increasingly mobile, these applications help users manage their health. Among these users are communities of color, with the proportion of Internet users who are Black or Latino nearly doubling between 2000 and 2010 (Smith). The Internet and mobile technology have become pervasive tools for health consumers that it has become one way for disadvantaged communities to gain access to health information quickly and efficiently.

Lastly, there are currently “over 15,000” apps readily available for patient use that promote health and wellness (Montgomery, 2014, para 1). The concern exists is that there are no indicators of which apps are reliable and which are not. “In September 2013, the FDA released a statement on the guidance of regulations for mHealth apps. The FDA concluded that the majority of medical apps do not pose a significant health risk to consumers and do not require oversight” (Dicianno, et al., 2015, p. 402). When a patient has health concerns or questions and turns to an app to look up symptoms that they or a loved one is having, they rely on what they read. If the patient has been vomiting and appears to be lethargic, it may indicate a viral infection and that within a few days, if not any better seek medical attention. Unbeknown to the app obviously, the patient had fallen earlier in the day and hit their head, which with these symptoms; they should seek immediate medical treatment. Being a user of the WebMD app, when a symptom has been selected such as chest pain, it provides questions to refine the symptoms and if the user selects pain when taking a deep breath, an alert will pop up instructing them to seek emergency medical attention.

In order for technology to be truly interoperable, federal guidelines must be met to ensure the information can easily be accessed by those who need it. A hospital facility would benefit greatly from telecommunication technology that allows physicians to easily place orders and access results on a portable device to facilitate and decide care. According to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) mobile health (mHealth) capitalizes on the growing trend of smart phones by utilizing software apps which allow physicians to access patient health information (Public Health Institute Center for Connected Health Policy, 2016). The use of mHealth meets guidelines established by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the software used and classifies it as a medical device; the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) guidelines that establish the need for information to be transmitted from patient monitoring devices to physicians in a reliable and quick fashion; and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which prevent misinformation regarding the effectiveness of apps and software that impact patient safety (Public Health Institute Center for Connected Health Policy, 2016). The use of smart phones changes how quickly physicians can remain informed of a patient’s disease process and is used by staff to facilitate clinical decision making processes.

Although CareKit Health Toronto, Canada has built a powerful platform for care coordination and home healthcare that integrates wearable, sensors, voice technology and intuitive mobile apps and desktop interfaces for patients, clinicians and healthcare administrators, the following are the successful metrics to precede our project’s service model:

In today’s day and age we are a society that revolves around technology, with this being said as technology changes so does our society. In today’s healthcare fields the same is true healthcare revolves around technology and its advances. These technologies play a major role in the way we do things in healthcare and also how we give care to patients. One major technology that is currently revolutionizing healthcare is telehealth. The concept of telehealth has many different aspects which are helping to eliminate gaps in the current healthcare system by building bridges linking patients to all of their healthcare needs. It also allows to healthcare members to easily monitor patients and gain knowledge to give care. Telehealth is clearly positive effecting healthcare today, but even despite these positive effects of these technologies telehealth still face many challenges moving forward.

the management of such chronic diseases like Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). This complex disease is

Mobile health (mHealth) technology made an appearance in the early 2000’s with the personal digital assistant (PDA), most notably the Blackberry (Ventola, 2014). Since then, the trend has grown remarkably. Experts predict that by 2015, over 500 million people will be accessing health-related applications from their smartphones (Mobile Medical, 2014; Malone, 2013). There are many types of mobile health products and serve a variety of purposes. Applications can be used for diagnosing illness, digital imaging, monitoring remotely for chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease), ECG viewers, telehealth, managing prescriptions, appointments, reference materials (drug and ICD coding information), diet, exercise, remote communication, dictation, surgical scheduling, voice, text, web browsing, camera and sound, and global positioning (Chouffani, 2011; Ventola, 2014).

The practice of using mobile devices in healthcare is growing. More than half -- 51% -- of physicians use tablets for professional purposes and 74% use smartphones at work. The mobile monitoring and diagnostic medical devices market will reach $8.03 billion by 2019, compared with a mere $0.65 billion in 2013.

Healthcare has improved greatly with the advent of mobile apps. More and more people are beginning to know the importance of being able to access health data to care for themselves better. Healthcare technology has made such data more accessible to satisfy this need.

The mobile is slowly taking over the desktop for online searches. According to this infographic by 34SP.com, the mobile use has grown exponentially by 500% over the last two years. It is predicted that by 2016, the number of mobile internet users in the US will increase by nearly 17%. That means more and more prospective patients are using their smart phones or devices to find your practice. The impact of mobile phone use on your practice can no longer be ignored. It is imperative your practice to have a mobile website or to be optimized for mobile use and make your practice accessible to a larger audience.

With the drastic rise in demand for and popularity of health, nutrition, and fitness smart devices and applications, individuals have more tools available to them than ever before to help encourage and monitor health behaviors. Moreover, improving healthy behaviors, including engaging in fitness and proper nutrition, is now readily available at the touch of a button thanks to the upsurge in Mobile Health (mHealth). mHealth refers to the use of mobile communication devices (phones, tablet computers, PDAs, etc.) for health services and information (Mobile Health: A

Mobile devices are such an easy tool to use so many different healthcare professions use them. Everyone from the pre-hospital side of things, including EMS workers all the way up to the administrative workers at the top in the hospitals. Even small doctors’ offices are starting to get on the train using tablets for everyday tasks. Tablets are even in used in the medical classrooms teaching future doctors, nurses, and paramedics.

Monitoring patients with vital signs using mobile computing technology had substantial growth for physicians. They are able to access information, resources and people at the right time and place. What is so essential about mobile computing is the feature of the healthcare delivery. Faster communication between the patients, wards, clinics, laboratories, operating theaters and offices are very important. Physicians are able to complete these tasks with their patients at a faster rate. This means the patient(s) are able to get the treatment they need faster and the physicians are to take care more individuals than before.