Today’s world revolves around smartphones. The advent of comprehensive, user-friendly operating systems like Android and iOS have turned the modest cell phone into a powerful personal device capable of carrying out almost all the tasks an individual asks it to do.
The smartphone market has grown by leaps and bounds mainly because of all the useful functions it offers with the help of apps. It is no wonder that worldwide smartphone shipments have reached unprecedented levels of 373.1 million units in Q2 2017. Healthcare mobile app development has become a multi-million dollar industry owing to the massive surge in the demand for smartphones.
Smartphones and Healthcare – A Match Made For Success
The presence of so many smartphones has given rise to a separate communication medium between smartphones, apps, and people. Interestingly, this is not limited to just personal communication but has found its way to time-sensitive and secure operations of many sectors. One such sector is healthcare. The use of mobile devices in healthcare sees multiple practical applications – all geared towards providing a better quality of healthcare to patients.
Although healthcare professionals have started using mobile devices to better organize and provide service for their patients, many have shown skepticism about the idea. This may be because of not liking the idea of change or because of lack of knowledge. Today, we present a list of compelling advantages how smartphones can steer patient care towards successful outcomes:
Benefits of Mobile Devices in Healthcare:
- Massive and Continuous Data Flow
The healthcare industry is massive, with phenomenal volumes of data being transferred every second between healthcare institutions and patients. For the healthcare providers to better communicate with patients, they need to access the data flow without hampering their access to information or limiting their movement.
One important note here though – the healthcare sector has to align itself with the HIPAA Act, which states the rules and regulations healthcare providers must follow in order to share information with healthcare institutions.
This act has provided healthcare institutions with a better way to distribute information. They don’t have to worry about misplaced files, papers, and folders which has paved the way for mobile devices in the healthcare sector.
There is, however, the issue of cybersecurity, which is a major reason why people still remain a bit skeptical. However, the pros of mobile devices in this sector far outweigh the cons, which is why mobile devices have proven beneficial to the healthcare industry.
- Real-Time Communication
This is one of the biggest advantages that mobile devices have been able to offer to the healthcare sector. With doctors and nurses using smartphones to provide accurate prescriptions and instructions to facilitate faster recovery of patients, smartphones allow them to communicate with the patient in real-time.
Doctors can use the camera of the smartphone to remotely examine the patient and provide on the spot advice which can help boost the patient’s recovery. This is a huge benefit of mobile devices in healthcare.
Experts in different parts of the world can coordinate simultaneously to exchange valuable information and consult each other. This can help the patients receive better treatment from doctors.
- Physician Efficiency Enhancement
Physicians are an integral part of the healthcare ecosystem. The job of a physician is rewarding, sure, but it is also a high-stress job. Statistics show that almost 60% of physicians feel stressed and tired from their highly demanding jobs.
The main reason given by these people is that the data entries and other administrative tasks take up a lot of their time and energy, leaving little or no energy for patient care. This problem is being made easier by mobile devices.
Physicians can use these mobile devices to record data about the patients efficiently and with minimal efforts, which can make their jobs a lot easier. Also, mobile devices can provide accurate and updated drug info which can further make a physician’s job easier. Additionally, mobile devices can be used to automatically handle paperwork which can provide physicians more time for patient treatment.
- Direct Patient Management
Traditional healthcare methods only provide doctors with a narrow vision and understanding of how their patients were recovering or taking medicines which only gave the doctors a limited scope of observation over their patients. Mobile devices in healthcare are being used in order to overcome this situation.
With multiple health accessories such as health bands, wearable distance trackers, fitness apps available in the market, doctors can directly monitor data of the patients through their gadgets and determine the recovery speed and effectiveness of the patient’s lifestyle.
They can also directly provide prescriptions through smartphones and help their patients recover more speedily. Mobile devices can also be used to remotely contact the patient in real-time and ask about their current whereabouts and treatments which give the doctors better insights.
- Convenience
Mobile devices and smartphones have taken over training and learning. People are increasingly using smartphones to replace bulky books with e-books for better convenience and accessibility.
Traditional methods of treatments required doctors to run to the library to get info on a new case. However, with the advent of smartphones, information is just a click away. This has, in turn, provided for better convenience.
Also, with new forms of communication like video conferencing and voice conferencing now used extensively, doctors can carry out meeting over mobile devices and save a lot of time.
- Increased Accuracy
In the past, patient records, medical histories, and documents were hard paper printed which made maintaining and organizing it a burden for the healthcare industry. This problem was eased by the introduction of computers, but mobile devices have taken it a step further and completely eradicated the need for paper documents whatsoever.
Mobile devices help doctors and nurses by allowing them to keep accurate records of patients and their prescriptions. The errors which could be caused by handwritten notes are minimized by digitized documents. Apps can be used to run automated prescription checks that have greatly helped healthcare providers.
- Customization
Physicians are the backbone of healthcare institutions and their job demands a lot of time and energy. Physicians handle a lot of patients at the same time and also carry out other administrative work which makes their job a hectic one.
It is almost impossible for physicians to attend to all patients at once and provide accurate prescriptions instantly. Mobile devices are helping physicians handle patients more effectively by allowing them to create separate profiles for patients and customizing them accordingly.
This helps the doctors pinpoint the problem much more quickly and provide the patients with an accurate prescription fast. In the past, this task was hard and tedious, but with mobile devices being used now, doctors have been able to carry out their duties much more efficiently.
- Better Communication
When a patient is admitted to a hospital, he undergoes treatment. More often than not, the patient, when discharged from the hospital is given prescriptions and certain instructions by the doctor or the nurse in case of acute conditions.
Many a time it so happens that the patients mishear the information provided to them or there occurs miscommunication between the nurse and the patient, results in re-admissions. This takes up a lot of time. This can also have adverse effects on the patient’s health, as consuming wrong drugs can cause the ailment again, or even worsen it.
This problem can be minimized using mobile devices as a communication tool between the patient and nurses or doctors. Doctors can directly provide prescriptions and instructions through apps which can eradicate miscommunication. They can also monitor if the patient has bought the right medicines. This has reduced miscommunication and ultimately helped doctors and patients alike.
To Wrap Up,
Smartphones and mobile devices have changed people’s lifestyles, but it has also proven beneficial for many sectors in the market, including the healthcare industry. As seen above, there are a lot of benefits of mobile devices in healthcare. With mobile devices and fitness accessories being used widely now, the communication between patients and doctors has become easier and this has ultimately led to the provision of better services being offered to the patients.
While mobile devices in healthcare do hold tremendous promise, adhering to HIPAA and other regulatory protocols is a must. For this, you need a digital healthcare tech partner with a proven mettle in devising and deploying incredible value for the healthcare sector with high-performance mobile applications. For this, Mobisoft Infotech is a name worth remembering.
We have specialist competencies in developing bespoke technology solutions that are HIPAA compliant. Leverage our domain expertise to get the best in class mobile apps designed exclusively for the healthcare sector. Be it security, compliance, performance, or scalability, the apps deliver advantages across the board – be it patient-centric care, inter-hospital communication, or secure data transfer, we can do these and much more.
Connect with us to see how you can benefit from technology developed for the healthcare industry vertical.
Author's Bio
Shailendra Sinhasane (Shail) is the co-founder and CEO of Mobisoft Infotech. He has been focused on cloud solutions, mobile strategy, cross-platform development, IoT innovations and advising healthcare startups in building scalable products.
