Becker's Advancements In Health Care

The use of mobile technology in the healthcare industry has exploded in the last ten years. Mobile health or mHealth, provides an entire new aspect of the relationship between patients and their doctors and other medical providers. Mobile devices place important and critical information into a medical professional’s hands in real-time. Doctors can monitor a patient’s condition more frequently, allowing them to make better and more informed decisions and diagnoses.

Mhealth has reached the poorest of communities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). More than 9 million patients email their physician in 2009 (Digital Health Care, 2010), because patients’ busy lifestyles do not allow time for an office visit for non-emergent health conditions. . In recent years, the expansion of mobile health (mhealth) technologies, including health text messaging, mobile phone applications, remote monitoring, and portable sensors, have changed the way health care is being delivered in the U.S. and globally (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). Patients like the convenience of communicating with his or her physician through advanced technology.

As consumers utilize smartphones, tablets, and other devices for other functions like social media and email, they are starting to look at these features to assist them with their healthcare. Mobile body area network devices will be a growing trend in the coming years as a way to get patients engaged in their healthcare and also to give providers routine updates on the status of patients with chronic conditions. As DeGaspari (2014) indicates, these devices can lead to improved functionality for other devices used in hospitals, such as sensors for monitoring patients that might get up and wander or be a fall risk. Telemedicine will continue to grow as payers, providers, and patients all start to realize the mutual benefits that can be

Communication is the key in a health care field and having patient portals has increased information sharing between physician, nurses and patients. Patient portal is software that allows patients to get access to their own electronic medical record in a secure, efficient and easy to use program. Patient portals offer updated list of medications, diagnosis, allergies, lab results, patient history and more. Patients have access to their portals, which allows them to keep themselves up to date on not only their history but new information that doctors and nurses have given them. Also, having access to their portal allows them to keep updated information such as, discharge instructions for better care. This eliminates the time the nurses would spend on phone tag. It is a secure online software that provides patients with privacy and own username and password.

Telemedicine has provided better access to health care to many individuals that would otherwise not be able to get required health care services. Telehealth is a means to improve access to care, while reducing costs of transportation and increasing accessibility to patients in obtaining care. Telemedicine allows for healthcare information to be shared with treatment team members that are separated miles from each other with the ability to communicate in a timely manner. For information technology to impact care, one has to be knowledgeable about the use of technology

Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities.

In today’s complex and highly competitive environment, clinicians struggle with finding a defining edge in quality of care, patient satisfaction, and affordability. To respond to these needs physicians are looking for better tools to record information, assist in clarifying issues, provide comparative results over time, become more affordable, improve workflow and procedural process, and share information with outside partnering organizations. Clinical technologies have come a long way to help answer some of these needs. These technologies have become more precise, functional, focused and mobile. They are perceived in many circles as valuable and necessary in the practice of modern medicine. Moreover, the use of clinical

Evidence Base Practice and research is the standard by which health care workers are expected to deliver higher quality care (Carter-Templeton, PhD, RN-BC & Wu, MLIS, AHIP, 2015). There is has been new developments made in terms of the way we gain access to the research and evidence based care resources, mobile electronics have paved way for a quicker more efficient approach to gaining the clinical knowledge for best patient care (Carter-Templeton, PhD, RN-BC & Wu, MLIS, AHIP, 2015). Some electronics that can carry out the task of facilitating this information are “tablet computers, handheld computers, smart phones and personal digital assistants” (Carter-Templeton, PhD, RN-BC & Wu, MLIS, AHIP, 2015) which can be used to download and run applications

Strides are being made more people are able to access the sufficient healthcare. Since specialized care is limited in rural areas it is hard to come by without traveling at the patients’ expense. Telemedicine was valued at $15.6 billion in 2014; this price is expected to increase 4.8% by 2019 (Iafolla, 2015). With an increase like this more rural areas will be able to access the care needed such as clinical services, provider training, specialized care, and medical education. Telehealth plays a crucial role with providers and patients at a distance. Since only 10% of physicians practice in these areas, time could be freed for those emergency cases and productivity can increase (Iafolla, 2015). The ability to provide care for those who cannot reach a hospital could help save a life.

Navas, H., Graffi Moltrasio, L., Ares, F., Strumia, G., Dourado, E., & Alvarez, M. (2015). Using mobile devices to improve the safety of medication administration processes. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 216903.

The days are gone when a doctor walked into a patient's room and grabbed the paper chart at the end of his bed to check his medical history. Increasingly, they offer real-time care monitoring, allowing users to share health data with a doctor from a Smartphone. Some apps even allow doctors to virtually assess, diagnose and treat patients without ever having them leave home.

A procedure that in the past ten years with technology and advancements in medicine is now considered a routine outpatient procedure. Not long ago, people started wearing wristbands that recorded the number of steps they took, their heart rates and sleep cycles. But if the now-ubiquitous bands and accompanying apps that stored biorhythms started out as novelties, they paved the way for a new generation of gadgets that have become serious tools to improve health care delivery and outcomes. These newfangled contraptions will change how and where care is delivered and will enable providers to stay continuously connected with patients wherever they may be — or at least connected to the devices that indicate whether a patient is abiding by prescription

Mobile Health (mhealth) is the practice of mobile information and communication technologies for furthering health (Moyle, 2015). Mhealth can be used for a variety of reasons, comprising of health promotion and disease prevention, health care delivery, training and supervision, electronic payments, and information systems. It is believed that mhealth has the ability to change the standard on when, where, how and by whom health services are delivered and accessed. It is freeing healthcare devices of wires and cords and allowing clinicians and patients likewise to check on healthcare processes on the go. It is estimated that the mhealth market will attain $20.7 billion by 2019, suggesting it is only becoming bigger and more widespread. It does

Telemedicine is the practice of medicine in relation to clinical care where medical information is transferred through technological means for the purpose of consulting or conducting medical examinations and procedures from two different locations. Technological means can be as uncomplicated as a phone call between two specialists or more complex with the use of satellite technology to enable equipment for video conferencing, transmission of images and monitoring of vital signs. There is a distinction between telemedicine and telehealth, telehealth is a broader term that does not always refer to clinical services but may also include patient portals, continuing medical education, and nursing call centers.

Telemedicine is the use telecommunications and information technology to provide healthcare to patients located in the remote or distant locations. For example: people staying in the mountainous areas or islands can get medical services right at their home with the help of smart devices or patients who cannot go to the hospital for some reason.