Mobile Devices Are A Wonderful And Important Tool Used By Healthcare Professionals

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.

As consumers utilize smartphones, tablets, and other devices for other functions like social media and email, they are starting to look at these features to assist them with their healthcare. Mobile body area network devices will be a growing trend in the coming years as a way to get patients engaged in their healthcare and also to give providers routine updates on the status of patients with chronic conditions. As DeGaspari (2014) indicates, these devices can lead to improved functionality for other devices used in hospitals, such as sensors for monitoring patients that might get up and wander or be a fall risk. Telemedicine will continue to grow as payers, providers, and patients all start to realize the mutual benefits that can be

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

This is critical in the medical field because it allows healthcare workers to access the information needed to provide patients with the care they deserve. Physicians, nurses, and technicians can use this technology to look medical records and past diagnosis to create future care plans for the patient.For example, the simple use of the cell phone pictures could favor in formulating a medical or nursing diagnosis. The enhanced technology regarding smartphones and digital cameras are now being tested as diagnostic tools. Some physicians are considering this process as a mean of time and cost efficiency, as well as a way to develop existing diagnostic and management practices (C., 2010).

……A recent survey by Kluwer Kluwer Health’s Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 71% of nurses are using smartphones for their job. It’s becoming the norm in the nursing workplace nowadays and the range of phone apps are moving beyond leisure. It’s not an exaggeration to say that smartphones are moving the nursing practice into a much greater height. From drug references, medication interaction disease, laboratory and safety information, nurses have access to all kinds of data to help them improve patient care.

There are five different components that contribute to the operations of healthcare. They are hardware, software, data, procedures and people. Hardware is the first step in the operations for any hospital or clinic. Reason being, the employees of said health organization will need access to a computer to preform, access and communicate with other health professionals or their patients. The way they can access this information is through any mobile device (Phone, iPod, portable device), computer or other technical devices. These are essential for the health organization to preform their daily operations.

In observation, (Fahnestock, McComb, & Deshmukh, 2013) stated "Information technologies are transforming the way healthcare is delivered. Innovations such as computer-based patient records, hospital information systems, computer-based decision support tools, community health information networks and new ways of distributing health information.” (p.3.2). In the sector of delivering healthcare using technology, has made it easier for healthcare professionals to access medical records, digitization of prescriptions and view test results. With the use of high-performance devices being used in the hospital, helps to make the jobs of healthcare professionals a little easier. As well as relieve anxiety from anxious patients that may be awaiting lab results to come back. Therefore, IT devices and services has been and continues to be a tremendous help and game changer for the healthcare system. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to help shape and reform the healthcare

Technology is everywhere when we look around. It’s in purses, wallets, cars, on walls, and sometimes even in our bodies! Technology is here whether we like it or not. It’s an important part of our lives. Some think it’s a hinderance in our life and others think we are using it for good to aid our growing world. In 2016 an article was written about a study that was completed that presented the effect of technology on readmission rates. The purpose of this article it to show mobile technologies and how they can be used to observe nonmedical workers by statistically basing patients on hospital readmission risk. There are three questions for this study: 1. Can observations of nonmedical workers be used to predict 30-day readmissions? 2. Should

Nursing of the future builds on old technology and new innovations to continue to grow towards a common goal. Nurses are just starting to see some of the changes happening in their workplace. Laptop computers on wheels aka (Cows) have been implemented to make the recording of patient data happen at the bedside. Larry Flynn and Dave Barista (2005) reported that “Wireless networks allow nurses to continue the care to the patient and not the chart. This is where nursing informatics plays a key role in hospital based technology and implementation of such technologies.

In order to decline medication errors, communication technologies is used including mobile devices, barcodes related to 2D code reading of patients and medication will diminish the chance of make a mistake while prepare and administer medication by nurses. The degree of user acceptance of the new technologies is directly related to the user experience and time-saving of tasks completed with the technology (Navas, Graffimoltrasio, Ares, Strumia, Dourado, Alvarez, 2015). Also, as a

Clinic computers should be used for clinic purposes only. Cell phones should not be used unless it is urgent, at which point scribes are asked to take calls or text in the break room or an area away from patients and providers.

Columbus Ohio Memorial Hospital (COMH) is a facility classified as a “level one” trauma center. This “level one” trauma center has approximate 1200 inpatients beds and 130 beds that are located in the emergency room. This facility has always utilized an electronic medical record (EMR) since 2010, which has displayed a remarkable progress in their patient care. One of the major problem that concerns physicians, is that they are unable to communicate patient information to other staff without having EMR in their presence. There have been countless days where the physicians had to wait for lab or test results in order to base their decision on patient care. Often times, the physician may not be at the hospital or a facility where accessible patient information is provided. Having access to share patient information via device would minimize time, cost, enhance patient care, and improve clinical workflow.

In my opinion using an iPad and having these medical apps benefits the physicians workflow and gives physicians mobility instead of the inconvenience of sitting at a desktop computer trying to input everything

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.