©2011 by EliNext Group

Mobile Apps in the Focus of Healthcare Industry

Recent findings of healthcare research companies indicate that mobile platforms are redefining the medical industry and the traditional doctor-patient relationship. Both healthcare providers and consumers are using smartphones and tablets as a means to achieve better results in the sphere of medical care.

The practice of using mobile

communication devices,

such as smartphones, tablets

and PDAs, for health

services and information has

got the name of mHealth (or

mobile health). Thus,

mHealth applications allow

patients to manage and

improve health by collecting information about their vital signs and

delivering it to practitioners in order to receive the appropriate

consultations or treatment. However, not only consumers are

taking advantage of mobile technologies, since mHealth

©2011 by EliNext Group

applications are to a great extent designed for healthcare

professionals, including doctors, clinicians, and nurses that need

real-time access to patients' histories, appointment schedules, drug

prescription details, billing data, and other practice related

information.

A huge number of medical companies and institutions have already

recognized the potential of mobile applications for healthcare.

They allocate budgets and invest in developing medical apps for

mobile devices, such as, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, as wells

other popular smartphones, tablets, and PDAs. Nowadays there

exist several thousands of mobile health apps. Such applications

are intended for the following purposes:

• Mobile apps provide healthcare specialists with real-time

access to the medical records of patients and allow tracking

their physical state indicators, symptoms, disease flow,

nutrition habits etc.

• Healthcare apps enhance such procedures as scheduling and

billing, medication prescribing and drug interaction checking.

• Mobile healthcare apps facilitate communication between

doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, for

example, through discussions of medical cases in online

forums.

• Mobile apps can provide users with the information about

local healthcare facilities, as well as with an access to a

searchable database of available physicians, dentists,

©2011 by EliNext Group

cosmetologists, etc.

• Healthcare applications can help in epidemic outbreak

forecast and monitoring.

• Mobile apps may contribute to the promotion of healthcare

education and wellness awareness.

In such a way, the positive features of mHealth apps lead to the

productivity increase of healthcare businesses, as well as to the

©2011 by EliNext Group

improvement of medical information collection and transmission,

since such apps allow healthcare specialists to work remotely and

still to have access to the critical medical data. This makes it

possible to provide customers with diagnostic and treatment

support.

The technical level of mHealth applications is increasing and they

are getting more sophisticated. Moreover, according to certain

studies, it is expected that 500 million people will be using

healthcare mobile apps in 2015. Therefore, the development and

implementation of such mHealth applications is a business

guideline for healthcare companies wishing to successfully operate

on the medical care market. More and more traditional healthcare

providers are already widening their health services by suggesting

consumers an option to make use of helpful mobile applications.

Industries and Technology Areas:

Industries: healthcare, medicine, insurance

Technology Areas: mobile applications development,

smartphones, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows

Mobile, tablet, PDA

©2011 by EliNext Group

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Suggested citation: EliNext Group.2011. “Mobile Apps in the Focus of Healthcare Industry” <http://www.elinext.com/healthcare-industry>