- According to a survey by Zebra Technologies’ 2022 Hospital Vision Study, a full 95 percent of patients said they were comfortable sharing health stats provided by wearables, and 77 percent thought the use of mobile devices in healthcare was a positive development.
- According to another survey by Zebra Technologies, an expected 97 percent of bedside nurses and 98 percent of physicians will use mobile devices in the healthcare setting by 2022.
From the above-mentioned survey report, it wouldn’t be wrong to predict that mobile technology will become more integrated into the healthcare experience in the near future.
Healthcare has long been a hands-on industry wherein health is evaluated face-to-face, allowing doctors, nurses and pharmacists to use both their domain knowledge and instinct to treat the patients before them.
The digital revolution has impacted virtually every aspect of our lives. The advent of smartphone technology has revolutionized the global healthcare system and brought e-health to our smartphones.
mHealth is a component of eHealth. The Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) defined mHealth or mobile health as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices. According to WHO, mHealth involves the use and capitalization on a mobile phone’s core utility of voice and short messaging service (SMS) as well as more complex functionalities and applications including general packet radio service (GPRS), third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications (3G and 4G systems), global positioning system (GPS), and Bluetooth technology.
Mobile health technology is being designed and executed for both health care providers and the public. Let’s delve into how mobile technology is transforming healthcare.
- High quality patient care:
mHealth significantly reduces preventable medical errors by humans and helps in facilitating the best standard of patient care. Through accelerating text messages and emails to remind patients of upcoming follow-up appointments, mHealth streamlines patient treatment. mHealth also empowers patients to track their own health and reduces manual record keeping.
2. Reduced patient care cost:
The usage of mobile devices like handheld mobiles, tablets, etc.in hospitals drastically improves healthcare delivery. Deploying clinical mobility in the healthcare domain also helps physicians in conducting appointments with their patients through video conference. Quality doctor-patient interaction drives cost-savings and productivity.
3. Imparting rural access to healthcare:
With mHealth, doctors or nurses can diagnose and treat their patients living in remote area using remote patient monitoring.
‘No matter where people live, everybody should have access to basic and affordable healthcare. They should not have to choose between selling their homes or receiving healthcare’ – Soumya Swaminathan, Deputy Director-General of Programmes, W.H.O.
The penetration of mobile technology in many low- and middle-income countries has seen an escalating reach. It significantly helps bridge the gap of connectivity between patients and care providers.
4. Escalates efficiency of healthcare providers:
mHealth helps monitor performance and medical targets of healthcare providers regularly. It gives real-time updates regarding patient’s health check-up. The possibilities for mHealth in both diagnosis and treatment are endless. It improves communication between staff, to providing better access to medical records and speeding up the delivery of lab results. It also monitors data provided by patients with wearable technology. It is due to the proven efficiency of healthcare providers that mHealth has seen an impressive climb in its usage.
5. Reduces waiting time and length of the average hospital stay:
mHealth significantly helps in lowering hours spent in the waiting room. Also, it helps reduce the length of the average hospital stay through its efficient utilization. Thus, the cost of healthcare delivery is significantly lowered for both the patient and the provider.
According to a W.H.O. report, ‘alongside benefits to increased business and information access, innovative thinkers are seizing the opportunity to harness the power of mobile technologies for the benefit of public health. If implemented strategically and systematically, mHealth can revolutionize health outcomes.’
Great productivity and convenience are driving the rapid expansion of mobile technology in the global healthcare system. Unsurprisingly, the next-generation healthcare solution is to embrace these digital tools of our future h
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