History and Evolution of Medical Mobile Technology

Medicine is the field that has been very intensive since its inception; several attempts have been made along the generations orally. According to history, informatics has proved to be the basic and important section in medicine that has provided the storage and access of enormous volume of data. This has resulted to the current medical practice which is developed from the Electronic- Health foundation. Through electronics the medical journals are rapidly accessed and disseminated and also ensure efficient patient data storage. This is very convenient to reference information that is stored in websites and text books online. Medicine has been the major beneficiary in the digitalized Electronic Health revolution. Due to the digital prowess, the delivery of information to medical staff has been ideal as doctors are no longer tied to the machines like desktop computers. The evolution of smart phones in digital informatics has enabled rapid access to the creating and storing materials more conveniently.

Smartphones are more advantageous than other technologies due their numerous characteristics i.e. stable internet connectivity, power to compute complex applications, portability and that it’s becoming a basic need to majority of doctors. In a survey done in June 2011, the wireless devices penetration in the US population indicated 102% implying that the wireless devices exceeded the total population. Although not all wireless devices are smart phones, estimation from the survey showed that 75% of the staff in medical practice use smartphones. 

The life of an infectious disease physician may be simplified by the use of a smartphone though ther must be a cost for upgrading the device. The smart phones can greatly help in maintainance of the multiple calendars and even locating many contacts like in the office. It’s very effective in synchronizing the Bluetooth or the USB connection. They also have a 2-way pagers mechanism that allows messeging and emailing to various quarters like friends and families. Voice mail is very common for some medical practitioners/physicians although it needs some settings to ensure the quality service

Although smartphone has rapidly increased the transition of mobile health through E-health, there is more promise in the market due to the introduction of other mobile technologies like tablets that are mainstreaming the health sector. The Apple iPad has also been brought to the market and its overweighing the tablets with great speed as they are now used for various purposes such as reference, medical education, education material, research projects and material storage.

Technology advancement has enabled the production of the specialized devices that are either compared to either small gadgets like mobile phones or large devices that are cumbersome like the ultra sound equipments, scanners etc.

Mobile health means the use of mobile device in medical and public health practice, it is always in reference to mobile communication gargets like tablet computers, mobile phones and APDs for the provision of health services. The applications in the mHealth comprise the use of the mobile devices to deliver the medical care information to the researchers, staff and the patients. Due to this, the smart phones has got a lot of attention in managing diseases, use of the text messages has been duly engaged to send patients reminders. This is well demonstrated in a program meant for the pregnant mothers known as the Text4Bay campaign.

The physician-patient communication can be so beneficial, Nusbaum, MD, founder of mobile application pus it so powerfully that the great importance of mobile applications would be very efficient communication between of doctor-patient as it streamlines their communication.

The mobile health communication is essential as it enables secure messaging by use of some mobile applications from the doctor to the patient and vise versa. This facilitates the doctors to access vital information they require from the patient. Through the mhealth the patient is able to secure an appointment with the doctor through the mobile application by the help of HIPAA compliant system. Through an efficient application, the doctor is able to review the lab results in a smartphone an share the results with the patient not necessarily from the office. This mode of communication reduces mistakes since some apps allow patients to scan and fill forms online like the insurance and driving license, this keeps the patients information to form part of the health profile of the sick person.

It is also evident from the study at Kaiser permanente that patients who use email as one of the applications on their mobile phones in communicating with their doctors realize a statistically enhanced improvement in their healthcare measures. Therefore the applications on the mobile health allow patient to take part in the disease management.

Mobile health application provides a many options to patients especially the diabetic mobile health application that contain a software that provide a medication adherence program and also the data to physician for blood glucose transmission

Medical mobile technology if well engaged can very much impove and ensure well mornitoring of the health records of a patient. A practitioner will be able to know your expectations in good time and use the limited time to the full. The healthcare systems that are highly developed like Israel, Europe and United states are due to the enhanced technology mHealth being among the primary consideration. The issues regarding readmissions and adverse drug events are very limited ni the developed healthcare systems (Peleg and Nazarengo)

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