Rising Use of Mobile Devices in Healthcare

The rise of the smartphone and tablet markets has been the defining technological revolution of the past five years. What was once a niche product for the enterprise has become an ubiquitous consumer product, with nearly 42% of mobile users employing smartphones. How have healthcare institutions taken advantage of all the processing power of smartphones now at our fingertips?

Medical professionals have increasingly been using mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) when interacting with patients. A Healthcare IT news report stated that there were more than 1,000 medical apps available for the iPhone as of February 2010 (one month before the iPad was announced). Apple CEO Tim Cook recently announced that 80% of US hospitals have been using the iPad in some capacity to treat patients. Such uses include bedside care, health record input, and image viewing.

It is widely believed that this is the beginning of a transition to tablets or smartphones as a doctor's primary tool. It should be about about a decade for the transition is complete. The question for the time being is: how can hospital management justify this investment? I will discuss a few possibilities below.

1. Electronic Health Record (EHR) Compatibility. In a previous blog posed, I discussed the necessary conversion of regular print records to electronic ones. One of the main problems created by this necessity is the amount of work required to input new records into the computer. Under the old system, doctor's would take notes into their files and this information would later be input into a digital file. With an iPad acting as the file, the computer input would be already done. Many EHR companies have begun developing apps for this platform that could save many man-hours.

2. Higher Patient Satisfaction. Giving doctors, nurses, or PCAs access to a mobile device could greatly reduce the amount of patient wait-time. In many circumstances, patient treatments depend on the outcome of health tests that are reported by computer. If these results were immediate, patients could be treated at a much faster pace. Long wait time is a common complaint about hospitals and its elimination would help management achieve its goal of satisfying patients.

3. Increased Care through Better Patient Tracking. The portability of these devices creates unlimited possibilities for healthcare adoption. Rather than keeping patients at the hospital to be monitored, doctors can set up an app on a phone to track them remotely.

These are only three possibilities - there are no limits with what can be achieved with this new technology. Creative management will find new ways to boost hospital efficiency and patient satisfaction, increasing the quality of our health care.

See the original articles: "Docs using mobile apps at the point of care," "Steve Jobs' legacy will live on in healthcare,"and "ComScore report finds 42 percent of US mobile users have smartphones"