Smartphone apps have become a part of our daily life right from planning finances, deciding where to dine all the way to commuting. The healthcare sector has also caught up with the app culture, and since the past few years, the healthcare sector has been bombarded with numerous useful mobile apps. One can say that through these apps healthcare industry is witnessing a digital revolution which is making a profound impact on the behavior of how patients and medical professionals interact.
Online Searching and Appointments:
This is one of the most significant ways in which healthcare apps have impacted the lives of both medical personnel alongside people looking for them. Today patients with the help of these apps can view and schedule appointments with the doctor of their choice. The patients can choose from a plethora of time slots available to get the appointment fixed in their desired location, which saves time for both doctors and patients. This also further eliminates the need to go to a hospital and stand in queues to book appointments which also results in inefficiency.
Enhanced Patient Engagement:
Mobile apps today simplify various aspects of patient engagement. Some apps can offer instant online consultation, free hospital visits, and unlimited follow-ups. The patients can also connect with specialists on voice or video calls to ask questions and ask the queries with regards to the problems. They also facilitate 24×7, instant chat with the patient’s care team. This gives the doctors an advantage to connect with their patients in locations where the doctors cannot be physically present. The system of remote monitoring also offers doctors the facility to diagnose critically ill patients in a better way and provide them with follow-up care.
Better Decision Making:
When the smartphones had not entered the lives of humans, selecting a doctor for any particular illness was a tedious task as patients had to depend on word of mouth, hoardings, and advertisements, doctors’ name, reputation, and qualifications. But today, patients can instantly register on healthcare apps and know about any doctor they require through features like patient ratings, reviews or other details from dependable sources.
Electronic Medical Records: These apps are also housed to extensive patient data as when patients register they have to provide their medical history, illness and other information on the apps. And, since most of these apps are cloud-based the patient information can be easily integrated and accessible across numerous devices. If a patient is visiting a doctor in a new city, then they need not worry as the doctor will be able to access their medical history through these apps and doctors easily can diagnose the illness easily.
Recording Vital Signs Using Smartphones:
There are numerous apps through which users can record and monitor their blood pressure, heartbeat and other vital signs and these very apps intimate the users in case there is any kind of abnormality in their daily functioning. Through the newer technologies, smartphones can be linked or connected with these additional accessories.
Amplified Accessibility and Affordability of Medicines:
During the early times’ patients had no choice but to pay what was being demanded of them in terms of being provided medicine or care. This often resulted in rising costs due to lack of transparency. With the advent of mobile apps, patients can compare the prices and facilities of different healthcare centers online before actually visiting them. The users can also validate the authenticity of the quality of service by reading the reviews of prior patients.
Today, in the age of mobile the world is moving towards smartphone and using it in almost all their daily works. These trends are just the start there is so much more coming that can influence healthcare in a massive way.
