How Top Mobile Technology Is Impacting Healthcare?

In recent years, mobile technology, also known as mhealth has provided the healthcare industry with several improved avenues. It is thought to be a new field with significant potential and it appeals to stakeholders and people looking for healthcare solutions. To build the perfect digital infrastructure for mhealth it is important to hire developers for healthcare. It helps in transforming traditional architecture to the latest digital ecosystem.

Gone are the days when patients would wait in lines for hours without getting proper treatment. Now people can connect with doctors at the tip of their fingers using their mobile phones. This is possible with monumental advancements in mobile technology in healthcare.

It has improved the reach and accessibility of healthcare to patients worldwide. It has enhanced time management and cost savings at every level from hospital visits to private appointments, making it easier for medical professionals.

Several hospitals and clinics have adopted mobile technology to successfully integrated information and communication. The modern technologies have also greatly helped improve acquiring biological, behavioral, and environmental evidence and the result of therapies with advancements in mobile health (mhealth).

These modern technologies are now commonly being used by people and in healthcare settings. Mobile health apps are an ideal example of technology helping in addressing medical and health issues. mHealth apps can help enhance patient safety as well as they are designed to follow standard medical care.

1. How Mobile Technology is Taking Over the Healthcare Industry in 2022?

As healthcare practitioners now have access to clinical, investigative, and progress data, mobile phones have now ensured quick advice to healthcare consumers. Mobile phones have become an effective tool with "mobile Health" emerging for common use in healthcare.

By 2025, it is anticipated that the market for mobile health would have increased to more than $300 billion US as per Statista. As health problems and trends shift in the upcoming years, healthcare app development will keep on changing. For instance, the potential use of mHealth applications to aid in diabetes care and prevention will be one of the key therapy domains for mHealth app developers as the prevalence of diabetes becomes a bigger problem. The global coronavirus pandemic is driving mobile health. Downloads of medical apps significantly increased during the pandemic's initial peak.

Some Insights into mHealth Application Use

Source – journals plos

2. Which Areas in Healthcare Use Mobile Technology?

1. Telemedicine

Convenience, improved remote access to care, particularly for patients in rural regions, and lower healthcare expenses are all advantages of telemedicine. In several disciplines, studies have shown that telemedicine consultations can be as effective as in-patient visits. The physical examination for telemedicine visits should be improved in several ways. It is particularly efficient for specialties where close patient contact is crucial to the physical exam.

Future benefits of telemedicine include its affordability, capacity to increase access to specialty care, and potential to lessen the impending physician work.

• Nuance
• 3M
• Amazon Comprehend Medical

These companies are working to leverage telemedicine technology for electronic health record (HER) systems. mHealth application can provide access to real time telemedicine services.

The Internet of Things (IoT), which focuses on how people, objects, and apps interact with one another, is quickly transforming the healthcare landscape. By providing access to extensive patient data and virtual care networks, it is influencing how technology is used in telemedicine.

2. AI in Healthcare

One of AI's greatest potential advantages is to keep people healthy, so they do not need doctors frequently. People are already benefiting from consumer health applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).

Applications support a healthy lifestyle and encourage individuals to adopt healthy behaviors. It gives customers control over their health and wellbeing.

Additionally, AI improves healthcare workers' capacity to comprehend the regular patterns and requirements of the patients they care for. This enables them to offer superior feedback, direction, and support for maintaining health.

3. Cloud-Computing

The use of cloud computing in the healthcare industry has significantly increased. The use of cloud computing during the pandemic had been essential to the functioning of the entire healthcare system. Every medical institution, including doctors' offices and hospitals, has benefited from IT infrastructures.

Improved privacy, lower costs, and better patient care through remote operation and cooperation are some benefits of the rising use of cloud technology in healthcare. The adoption of cloud computing in the healthcare industry opened new opportunities to improve the efficiency of IT systems.

For instance, here is a case study – Our team of developers helped a client, a leading pharma firm, in app development for healthcare. We built a feature-rich cloud-based app, and provided a solution that eliminated the physical fax server.

4. VR in Healthcare

Mobile health is starting to transform how and where behavioral health care can be provided. Health practitioners can enhance their treatment regimens by using immersive technology like virtual reality (VR), and smartphone users can improve their mental health either at home or on the go.

Virtual reality is used in the treatment of progressive disorders that cause movement problems because it allows for more freedom and improves the outcomes of capacity training. Virtual reality settings can be utilized to improve task performance, and rehabilitation and physiotherapy programs can use these technologies more regularly now that they are more widely available. This is crucial for people with impairments. Virtual reality can be a great tool to enhance patient performance during training.

5. mhealth apps

Apps are programs that run on mobile platforms. Engineering is essential for designing software and ensuring its quality, safety, and security. For healthcare mobile app development, developers should use engineering processes to ensure that software is designed to specifications, including regulatory requirements, and that safety and security are integrated into the design. Threats can be systematically identified and mitigated, not just before and during deployment, but also throughout the life of the system by monitoring use and preventative maintenance.

The vast volume of health apps and their widespread availability are a result of how simple it is to create and distribute them. More than 325 000 health apps are accessible in the top app shops.

Here is a list of few mobile technology mhealth apps -

I. Mayo Clinic

A customized Mayo Clinic app has been created for their personnel and clients. When necessary, the personnel can view the clinical patient data with its assistance. Obtaining lab results, pictures, prescriptions, patient information, and vital signs is simple for practitioners.

II. Mychart

One of the top medical applications made available to Android users is MyChart. Before users visit a hospital or clinic to see a doctor, the app enables them to access their medical records and data.

The app provides information on test results, medical issues noted by doctors, medications, and vaccinations. Patients can use the app to upload data generated by them, confirm appointments, and pay for medical expenditures.

III. ClotMD

One of the helpful healthcare applications you may use for yourself is this one, but you should be aware that it only applies to certain conditions. Patients who require anticoagulants can benefit from using the ClotMD app, which is designed specifically for them.

IV. Dr. Now

A doctor-on-demand app called Dr. Now is utilized all throughout the UK to efficiently link patients and practitioners so that remote video consultations can be held. The app's goal is not to replace in-person visits to a hospital or clinic, but to provide remote consultation in cases where it is not necessary for the patient to travel there.

V. Esquared

Esquared is a simple choice if you are seeking a fitness app that is available on demand. You may search for one-time lessons and gym sessions in your region using the app. There are no hidden fees or subscription costs associated with the app. This implies that if you decide to stop using the app, there are no obligations to keep you from doing so.

3. How are these Mobile Technologies Used in Healthcare?

• Patient Monitoring

Patient monitoring systems are simple to define. Electrocardiography (ECG) tracks the electrical activity of the heart, is one prominent illustration of a patient monitoring system. Patients with hypertension monitor their blood pressure with monitoring equipment. Diabetics use glucose monitoring equipment to measure blood glucose levels and avoid potentially harmful complications. Monitoring devices are also essential for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and other respiratory illnesses.

User access portals and patient monitoring devices both make use of software. While the hardware of the gadget is crucial, it is the software that converts the data into a form that medical practitioners can use.

Machine learning (ML) system is used in remote patient monitoring system. It consists of -

• A private health gadget with Bluetooth functionality
• A mobile app for patients
• Cloud storage
• Hospital-side application 

• Patient Data Protection & Data Privacy

Trust is one of the cornerstones of the healthcare system. Patients must have faith that the individuals and institutions delivering them care have their best interests in mind. When visiting a doctor, patients frequently divulge information about themselves that they might not otherwise.

Threats manifest as theft, unlawful access to or exposure of email or medical records, network server hacks, and email hacks. Bad actors might need access to patient data for a variety of purposes, such as selling the information for a profit or extorting the people who would be affected.

Data security is crucial in the healthcare industry since it may be required for the organization to temporarily halt operations if a health plan or provider experiences a breach. Patients may need to wait longer for the care they need or may miss it if surgeries are postponed.

Despite its potential, mHealth has advanced more slowly than changes in industry. One reason is that privacy and security concerns for researchers performing mHealth studies continue to be a constant worry, particularly in areas involving sensitive behavior or treatment. The amount that can be acquired utilizing mobile devices raises concerns for privacy and security in addition to the sensitivity of the data.

• Ease of Workflow

For hospitalists, user-centered mHealth applications and technology may assist lighten workloads and improve productivity.

Hospitalists are medical professionals that work in healthcare facilities and offer patients general medical treatment while they are there. Hospitalists rely heavily on EHR systems to help with paperwork, information retrieval, and order formulation, but their lack of mobility can cause redundancy and inefficiencies.

• Wearable Devices

Due to rising consumer desire for tracking their own health, the mHealth industry is seen a huge surge in wearable health gadgets. Due to the widespread use of wearable fitness technology, FitBits and smartwatches are now commonplace, and the future of wearable technology shows no indications of slowing down.

Remote monitoring and consultation are some of the main topics that mHealth apps are focusing on. The fastest-growing applications will be those that monitor people with illnesses like diabetes or asthma. They differ from fitness apps because of this, which also explains why healthcare app development businesses are in demand to create apps to boost the use of wearable technology in mobile technology apps.

• Medical Imaging

Mobile devices are ideally situated to significantly advance medical imaging. Advantages of mobile devices include portability, computational power, accessibility, and built-in internet connectivity.

Mobile devices' role in medical imaging has expanded to include a wide range of tasks, including diagnostics, enabling the triage of urgent conditions, enhancing provider-patient communication to speed up patient care, and offering a workable system for patients' follow-up and self-monitoring. Mobile technology's ever-increasing capabilities have also allowed them to serve as tools other than just for taking pictures. A variety of basic sciences, medical and surgical specializations, and public health have reflected this by utilizing the imaging capabilities of mHealth to enhance patient access and service delivery.

• Clinical research

mHealth or mobile technology is empowering the healthcare arena. However, in clinical trials, mHealth will improve the following in order:

• Data quality during trials
• Patient trial observance
• Patient engagement
• Safety and signal detection 

• Diagnostic and Treatment

The potential for mobile health technology and applications to enhance the screening of infectious diseases including COVID-19, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), HIV, and others has been acknowledged. Healthcare administrators are pushing for the remote screening and detection of COVID-19 suspected cases using digital health tools like mobile health.

4. What are the Pros and Cons of Mobile Technology in Healthcare?

Pro:

• Recognizing the growing demand by consumers for digital health services, app developers have stepped up.
• For mHealth developers, the good news is that one of the apps used daily by many consumers happens to be an mHealth app.
• mHealth apps provide little measurable value for consumers and clinicians, there are several measurable ways mHealth helps improve care and quality of life.

Cons

• Because developers are notrequired to show that their applications contain relevant and scientifically proven information, the number of low-quality and plain useless apps is disproportionately larger than the number of high-quality, valuable apps.
• Security challenges and risks, which are the most concerning disadvantages of using smartphones in healthcare.
• Many doctors doubt that the data most mHealth apps collect from wearables is accurate enough to make any sort of conclusions based on it.

5. What is the Scope of Mobile Technology in Healthcare?

• Communication

Mobile technologies link practices by enabling orthopedists and other medical professionals to remotely monitor patient health concerns and incorporate these technologies into patient care. Many doctors take pictures and videos of patients' ailments and future procedures using their smartphones or tablets.

• Efficiency, Accuracy

When it comes to patient care, mHealth apps should be used to increase efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis, tailor treatment plans, offer behavioral change recommendations, educate patients, or provide better access to well-established treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Finally, mobile technology in healthcare and custom software development for healthcare industry will play a significant part in empowering patients to take control of their own health through digitally enabled care pathways. It will also bring new advantages to healthcare delivery systems.

• Fast Access to Patient Care

When it comes to patient care, mHealth apps should be used to increase efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis, tailor treatment plans, offer behavioral change recommendations, educate patients, or provide better access to well-established treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Finally, mobile technology in healthcare will play a significant part in empowering patients to take control of their own health through digitally enabled care pathways.

Conclusion

The way people manage their own personal health care is changing because of mobile technology and healthcare app development. With the use of these apps, consumers of health can monitor their own health and make lifestyle adjustments.

Healthcare firms are also keen on developing apps that work on android and iOS platforms to be seamlessly connected with patients and improve healthcare and quality life. For these purposes they need an experienced and quality healthcare app developers who have ample of experience in delivering best results.

At Clarion, we develop specialized mHealth applications for creating dynamic environments for healthcare providers, clinicians, and patients. Contact us for IT solutions and services for healthcare and work with us on a two-week free trial with our vEmployee model! Our unique model enables us to build a partnership of trust, transparency, and timely communication with our clients! We offer them the highest quality keeping in mind their requirements and their feedback.