Are Mobile Apps Going to Replace Machines in Our Hospitals?

Jul 25
09:49

2013

Jennifer Lewis

Jennifer Lewis

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Smart phones have opened new gates of opportunities and success for almost every sector. Healthcare sector also has its share of joy covered under the opportunities of using smart phones to improve quality of the services they render.

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Smart phones have opened new gates of opportunities and success for almost every sector. Healthcare sector also has its share of joy covered under the opportunities of using smart phones to improve quality of the services they render. Now a medical professional can integrate his smart phone with various medical devices to get reports delivered in his mobile device. He can forward that report instantly to patient on his smart phone. This is indeed revolutionary as he can prescribe the treatment through mobile apps if there are discrepancies in the report. Use of the Internet in collaboration with smart phones and devices has made this picture even spectacular. If a patient has a mobile app on his phone,Are Mobile Apps Going to Replace Machines in Our Hospitals? Articles he can set it to monitor blood pressure, glucose level and many other vital stats and send reports to the physician instantly.

There are numerous apps available with app stores that are working wonders in the medical sector. The best example is an app available in Apple's store that can retrieve news from 34 different fields of the health sector. It also has a clinical reference section, which includes safety guidelines for drugs and video tutorials on various medical procedures. There is another app, which uses 3D technology to navigate through the body. Users can rotate, cut, zoom or acquire a superior and inferior view. It is something beyond the perception of the conventional media used in the hospitals until now. It also offers anatomic animation, which is crucial from any physician's perspective. Similarly, there is another app, which is capable of searching muscle trigger points and spastic zones in the body. Once it identifies the spot, it gives recommendations on the possible treatments. ePSS is an app developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services. It assists primary care clinicians in rendering services related to preventive medicine. All the information rendered by ePSS is gathered from USPSTP or US Preventive Service Task Force. This app renders information by the criteria of age, sex and selected risk behavior.

Beyond all these apps and technologies, an innovation has made mobile medical apps to take a bigger leap forward. The new iPhone ECG is an iPhone case that connects to the device to collect Electrocardiogram instantly. iPhone ECG connects to iPhone from one end and into 32-pin connecter from the other end. It has two electrodes, which are used to place the index fingers to carry electrical rhythms to the on board smart phone. This app has dual benefits to offer to its users. Firstly, it can allow people with cardiac problems to check their ECG frequently and send reports to the doctor instantly. Secondly, it will make people more health conscious, as they will be able to track what's going on inside their body regularly than before.

For the tech geeks, this may be just another wonderful piece of technology but it opens a completely new line of products to perform various medical procedures at your home. FDA has been keeping a close eye on all these innovations and testing them on toughest standards and parameters before approving them. The authorities of FDA carefully review all the aspects of an app before approving it for public use. I would advocate this modus operandi adopted by the FDA, as after all they are just technologies running on mechanical devices. Both of them are prone to develop a technical flaw at any stage of its handling and if this happens, it would prove costly for physicians and patients will suffer the maximum impact.