Health In Your Hands - mHealth

With technology trending in every sphere, the digital health sector too is expanding in leaps and bounds; mHealth specifically is making significant progress in this arena. 7.1 billion Mobile users have been reported globally in 2021; while India alone has 1.2 billion mobile users, out of which 750 million are smartphone users. mHealth refers to providing healthcare support through mobile technology. mHealth is also referred to as mobile computing, medical sensor and communication technology for healthcare. Wearable devices and mobile technology makes it very convenient to use and easy to track. Infact mobile apps in healthcare have made life extremely convenient for us by bringing diagnosis to post care and emergency services to our fingertips.

mHealth Apps – the new rage
325,000 mHealth apps were reported in 2017 and maximum of them can be conveniently downloaded from mobile app stores. Through these apps users can track and manage health data in the comfort of their homes. Additionally, mHealth also functions in bridging gaps in healthcare by easing interactions between patients and doctors. Secure messaging and video consultations makes patients’ lives easier. Research by AJMC shows nearly 75% of doctors, ER and urgent care visits can be handled over phone or a video call. Many patient visits are impromptu and can be easily handled on phone; thus saving time of both the parties. According to the Journal of Medical Internet Research, social features in healthcare apps have significantly enhanced patients’ ability to commit to treatment plans and healthier habits. These days’ online communities have become very popular as they provide a space to interact with others going through similar situations. This helps foster optimism and imparts a ray of home to all in the mobile health community. This is especially a boon for those who have an upsetting medical diagnosis and need to be inspired as they struggle in their road to recovery.

Leading mHealth Apps
Some top mHealth apps abroad are – Generis, Teladoc, Better Help, MDacne, Leafly, MySugr, EyeCare Live, Heal etc; while Practo, mFine, NetMeds, DocsApp, 1mg, MediBuddy, Medlife and Lybrate are the most widely used mHealth apps in India. A very interesting app, Apple Health App, can integrate with a patient’s EHR (Electronic Health Record) and help access health data on the iPhone or iPad. mHealth apps are primarily focussed towards educating consumers about preventive healthcare services. However, mHealth is also used for disease surveillance, treatment support, epidemic outbreak tracking and chronic disease management.

A Smart Approach
Today even medical tests and examinations are undergoing a significant revolution. The mHealth Apps give the flexibility of delivering real-time reports and examining them right from home. Infact majority of the examinations can now be performed using cell phones. In this arena the App that stands out is the Mobile MIM Radiology App. This is one of the first FDA-approved radiology imaging applications known to help the imaging professionals by offering portable access to medical images, such as MRI, SPECT, X-ray, PET, CT, and Ultrasound. Medical experts can use cloud technology and save the medical test images. This App helps technicians test intensity values, distance, and display measurement lines, annotations as well as regions of interest. With the help of a secure network they can then transfer the images to the app from a hospital or physician’s office.


Survey
A consumer survey from health insurer United HealthCare Services Inc., in 2017, found that 36% of Americans used the internet or a mobile app to compare healthcare services, with Gen Y topping the list at 51%. On the other hand a Deloitte study of 4530 healthcare consumers and 624 doctors revealed that almost half of all respondents used mobile or internet apps to track their health progress.

Benefits of using mHealth Apps
The transition from real time hospital visit for everything to using technology for quicker and efficient results, has a plethora of benefits. Some of the main benefits are:
• Cost Saving
• Time Saving
• Reduced Workload
• Reduced Frauds
• Improved health through Iot (Internet Of Things)
• E-Prescription
• Patient Dashboard
• Record Management

Towards a promising future…
mHealth is poised to play a bigger and more significant role in engaging patients in self-care, as smartphone ownership is exponentially rising globally. Advances in smartphone software and hardware teamed with easy availability of wearable devices have resulted in significant growth in the mHealth market. Looking at the advancements in AI, cloud and augmented reality, the future of mHealthcare apps looks promising. The entire healthcare industry is getting revolutionized and in a couple of years there definitely will be improved healthcare delivery, better personal health tracking and improved quality of patient care.

In a nutshell, mHealth has enormous potential to reshape healthcare delivery in the future and very soon visit to the hospital will be limited to only emergencies!