Mobile Health Apps to Increase with Smartphone Adoption

With the current popularity of smartphones with the general public, it makes perfect sense that these devices would be playing a larger role in mobile health applications. According to Juniper research, approximately three million smart phone owners will be using them for this purpose by the year 2016.

I can see handheld devices, such as smartphones, being an increasingly important part of healthcare in the future. They can be used to monitor cardiac patients without the person having to stay in a hospital, and this application could be used to monitor patients diagnosed with other types of chronic diseases.

This type of technology is already being used to monitor patients with diabetes. The camera function on smartphones can be used to provide information to dermatologists about wound care. As long as the camera on the phone can provide a good quality image, the doctor can monitor whether a patient is healing properly or if further treatment measures for ulcers and other disorders affecting the skin are necessary.

I was especially interested to learn that the company is predicting that users will download 44 million healthcare apps in 2012 and that this number will increase to 142 million in 2016. Over time, I can see smartphone technology being used to store and share health records.  Any application that can help doctors access information about their patients quickly and efficiently can only be good news for healthcare providers as well as the patients under their care.

mHealth Apps Growth to Reach $1.3 Billion

We understand how important mobile applications are to the healthcare field and predicted its rapid growth late last year. However, we were still surprised to learn that according to a report released by research2guidance, the market is expected to grow to $1.3 billion in 2012. This figure is a substantial increase over the numbers for 2011, which came out to $718 million.

With the number of mobile health application users predicted to reach 247 million in 2012, this method of using technology is here to stay. Since it is gaining in popularity, mobile health creates an opportunity for advertisers to reach specific target markets. Drug companies and others involved in the medical field will be able to get their messages directly in front of people who are interested in buying their products.

In some cases, revenues from mobile health applications will come from direct transactions. In other situations, money will be generated from providing patients with sensors that allow them to track information at home and forward it to their physician so that a specific medical condition can be monitored.

While some members of the public will resist mobile health applications, people who already own smartphones are probably more likely to embrace it. With smartphones becoming almost a necessary accessory for a certain segment of the population, I can see that people in this demographic will look at mobile health apps as just another type of application available to them.

Mobile Health Apps to Grow in Popularity

I was very interested to read that the use of mobilehealth apps by doctors and patients is poised for growth. This makes perfect sense to me, since consumers are already using their tablets and smartphones for internet searches, shopping and other functions.

According to the Analysis of the U.S. Broadband mHealth Applications Market, the number of tablet users will increase to 82 million by 2015 from the ten million people who owned one in 2010. What I initially did find surprising was the report's conclusion that the majority of people who would be using these mobile health apps would be older Americans. It did not fit in with the idea I had that smartphones and tablets were something that would appeal to younger people.

When I gave the matter some more thought, I realized that it makes sense that people living with chronic health conditions and their caregivers would be interested in using mobile apps that can help them doctors keep track of their condition.

If using a handheld device can help to track a patient's blood pressure, glucose readings, or medication dosages directed by a doctor, then this is a very welcome development for medical care. I predict that the popularity of mobile health applications will continue to grow over the next several years. Probably the only thing holding health care consumers back from using them is lack of knowledge, and that obstacle will not last much longer.

Mobile Health Devices Not Immune to Human Error Factor

I can see the advantages of doctors using mobile devices to access patient records, test results, and other information needed to provide good quality medical care. I can even appreciate that using them can help to keep health care costs more affordable by reducing the need for bulky paper records.

Unfortunately, there is a down side to mobile health devices, and that involves the people using them. Doctors have many, many demands on their time when they are on the job and something as simple as interruption when trying to input instructions about patient care for the nursing staff can have severe consequences.

I knew residents working in hospitals were busy people but I was very surprised to discover that the average number of interruptions they have to deal with during a shift was 4.6 per hour. Further complicating matters is the fact that a number of hospitals allow medical staff to bring their own mobile devices to work with them.

This is clearly a case where more is not necessarily better, and in the midst of a busy shift, I can see someone picking up the wrong device and trying to use it for work purposes. When doctors make mistakes with mobile health applications, it can lead to patients not being given proper medication or receiving appropriate medical care. Perhaps the answer is for hospitals to ban all non-workplace issued mobile devices when on the job.

Demand for Mobile Health IT Products on the Rise

I wasn’t surprised at all to learn that the medical profession is embracing mobile health IT products. Healthcare providers want to take this one step further and work with even more sophisticated products that can provide them with patient medical records and other information they need quickly and efficiently.

Mobile Point of Care devices are becoming more commonplace in hospitals. Workstations on wheels, tablets and smartphones are part of the equipment doctors and other healthcare providers use to do their work. Seeing a doctor using them at a patient’s bedside or in an examining room is to be expected.

I found the results of a survey conducted by IDC Health Insights very interesting. The respondents reported using an average of 6.4 mobile devices every day. A full 42 percent stated that the physicians working in their facility had a high to very high adoption rate for these items. A full 86 percent of them predicted that the adoption rate would increase over the next year or two.

Laptops were the most popular mobile device, with 84 percent of respondents saying that they used them on the job. Over half of those surveyed said that they use workstations on wheels or a tablet while at work.

I predict that spending on these types of mobile health devices will continue to increase. If these devices help doctors do their work better, it can only be a good thing.

Mobile Health Trends for 2012

Mobile health applications are becoming increasingly popular among healthcare providers. I can see that doctors would be interested in being able to access information on the go. The quality of the data they can access has a direct impact on the level of care they can provide to their patients. 

An app that can help doctors diagnose and treat various health concerns should help to streamline the delivery of healthcare services. A device used to collect EEG data paired with a lightweight head harness can be worn by a patient while sleeping. The collected data is forwarded to a remote server. The doctor can access it over the internet. 

Another interesting mobile health trend that I can see being popular in 2012 is an app that allows doctors to remotely monitor patients as they go about their daily activities. Not only is this approach more convenient for the patient, but the doctor may receive more accurate information by being able to constantly monitor a patient over time. I can see that a person who is in familiar surroundings will be more relaxed while being monitored.

The patient would be outfitted with a T-shirt that has a censor and the data collected would be transmitted with an iPhone. This mobile health app will allow the doctor to understand what types of events trigger a reaction in the patient. These details give doctors a better picture of the patient’s health and can help develop an effective treatment plan.

Majority of Doctors Using Mobile Technology at Work

I knew that mobile technology was popular among consumers, but recently, the use of mobile technology has been used by many physicians, nurses, and others in the medical field on a regular basis. According to a study conducted by Jackson & Coker, 80 percent of physicians are using these devices in their work on a daily basis.

Why are mobile devices so popular with people working in the medical field? I can see a few of the reasons why doctors have stepped up to embrace mobile technology. For one thing, they are easy to use. Smartphones and tablets are portable and are easy for the doctor to take with him or her when moving from one patient examination room to the next.

Another advantage to mobile technology in the healthcare field is that doctors can access information about their patients quickly and easily. Having patient records at hand is an important part of diagnosing and treating ailments, and now that hospitals and clinics are moving toward storing them electronically, it makes sense for doctors to use mobile devices to access them quickly.

Doctors make decisions that have an immediate impact on their patients’ lives, and they need to have the best possible information to make them. If carrying around a smartphone or a tablet on the job means they can offer better patient care, then this is a great strategy.