Like every other industry where technology has touched base, the healthcare industry is rapidly catching up. Technology has resulted in a paradigm shift in healthcare services, patient care and remote healthcare. Thanks to the rapidly advancing mobile technology and adaptation of mobile devices in the healthcare services, medical service and caregiving have transformed, penetrated and have literally become location-independent. In this article, let us have a look at how mobile technology and apps are transforming the healthcare industry.
Use of mobile devices by healthcare professionals
According to Statista¹, the number of smartphone users is estimated to cross 3.8 billion by 2021. This severe penetration of mobile usage has resulted in healthcare going mobile. From physicians to doctors, surgeons to nurses, primary healthcare providers to remote healthcare workers, everyone now makes use of a mobile device- a laptop, wearable technology trends like smartwatches, a smartphone, or a tablet for work.
Healthcare professionals use mobile devices in clinical practices and education. The traditional paper-based systems for patient data management and tracking were gradually replaced by desktops. From tracking every single detail to improved clinical decision-making, digitalization in the healthcare industry has been a blessing in disguise. The technical sophistication, quality revenue generation, and effective decision-making make smart systems such as that of hospital management programs an appealing investment. But for faster data access and convenience, laptops and smartphones are now being used by healthcare professionals. Powered by cloud storage for real-time data storage, access and updates, mobile devices in healthcare have proved to be more handy, light and multifunctional with various support applications, where traditional computers would have many dependencies on other third-party hardware components for similar tasks.
Here are some interesting stats about mobile technology in healthcare:
How mobile devices and healthcare apps are transforming the healthcare industry:
The rapid incorporation of mobile devices into medical practice has driven the development & availability of medical software applications or apps. These apps facilitate healthcare providers with various critical tasks like – easy health record maintenance and access, patient management and monitoring, communications and consulting, reference and information gathering. Besides these, there are various apps available for different supporting tasks such as prescriptions, coding, and hospital billing, clinical guidelines and telehealth.
Let us have a look at the top healthcare processes that are revolutionized, thanks to mobile technology:
- Accessing patient data from e-records (EHR)
Maintaining patient data on cloud-based data storage is the new norm for healthcare systems. With mobile devices, accessing the patient data anytime anywhere helps to provide proper diagnostics, preventive treatments and accurate patient care. The patients do not have to log around their medical files and the healthcare providers can access patient history and health records of current treatments easily.
- Improvement in quality of healthcare and less medication errors
With e-records that contain real-time digital imaging of patient ailment, scanning of patient information, maintenance of patient history, coupled with technologies such as AI, AR and VR can help by offering improved quality of healthcare. Digital record-keeping and e-prescriptions i.e online prescriptions can help in reducing manual errors. Physicians can increase availability by providing assistance via their personal devices.
Read more: BYOD in Healthcare: Benefits, Challenges, Solutions
- On-demand healthcare and remote healthcare
With mobile devices and telehealth apps, offering on-demand healthcare services is possible. This can help in providing healthcare assistance and primary diagnosis over the air. Facilitating frontline remote healthcare workers with mobile devices can further help in increasing the diameters of healthcare services. The mobile devices of remote healthcare workers can be equipped with guidelines, medical literature, drug references, medical software applications and a communication tool to be connected with the mainline hospital or healthcare centre.
Read more: Team Communication and Collaboration Among Remote Healthcare Executives
- Senior care and value-based care for medical homes
In senior care homes and assisted homes, mobile devices can be used to provide online healthcare and routine checkups. Each patient device can have their patient data and vitals which can help in providing care- from medication to nutrition for on-call caregivers.
Read more: Senior Healthcare: How Technology and MDM are Paving the Way for Better Living
Secure healthcare mobile devices with Scalefusion MDM
In order to leverage mobility, hospitals provide mobile devices to healthcare providers and in-house patients. These devices need to be secured from any misuse, unauthorized access and breach of sensitive patient data. Scalefusion is a Cloud-based Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution for healthcare. Scalefusion MDM for healthcare enables hospitals/healthcare systems to remotely manage, provide access control and secure the data on mobile devices used by healthcare practitioners and patients. Explore Scalefusion MDM for healthcare for securing mobile devices in healthcare.
Read more: 5 Ways Mobile Device Management is Transforming the Healthcare Industry
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