Discuss about the Management in Primary Health Care Institutions.
Mobile apps in healthcare have been embedded by the development of mobile technology and devices. The mobile apps in healthcare simply are about connecting with doctors through video, messaging, and emailing among other applications to ask questions and to get prescriptions written. There are many mobile apps in healthcare, which include John Hopkins ABX Guide, ZocDoc, as well as RevUp among others. The mobile apps in healthcare have many benefits, which are most important in extending the reach and the quality of healthcare services. Robson, Blackford and Roberts, (2012) postulates that mobile apps in healthcare facilitate more complex operations like monitoring, tracking chronic patients, as well as remote diagnostics. The use of the apps in healthcare enables efficient and secure healthcare services through monitoring patients, thus providing great value to the patient. Mobile apps in healthcare demonstrate clear benefits to both the doctors and patients.
The medical apps provide essential savings for public and private healthcare facilities while generating revenue for mobile network operators. In addition, the mobile apps in healthcare can deliver secure and high-quality solutions as well as facilitating better care to patients through the healthcare professionals. Besides, the apps can help in minimizing the time healthcare professionals lose in delaying test results, misplacing records, as well as missing appointments.
Using mobile apps in health care brings better care, especially when screening chronic diseases, which in turn can lead to a healthier population, and a system that is efficient with lower costs. The apps enable active response information management, better communication, care, treatment, and higher importance to the society. The overall benefits for the society may include better life anticipation, better management, and imminent into an outbreak.
Besides, improved information on diagnosis can create a healthier society. Even though the benefits of the mobile apps in healthcare are clear, the processes must be managed carefully to optimize productivity. There are also challenges like privacy issues, complexity in mobile systems and bolstering patient engagement that should be considered in the mobile apps in healthcare to enhance ease of use. This paper will, therefore, give examples of the mobile apps in healthcare, their challenges, as well as benefits of using them in healthcare processes. In addition, it will discuss the benefits of the medical apps of both the patients and doctors.
There are various mobile apps in healthcare, which are associated with providing information for patients and healthcare professionals as well as guiding people on drugs. These apps include John Hopkins ABX Guide, ZocDoc, as well as RevUp.
John Hopkins ABX Guide is a healthcare app that helps individuals to gather information on medications and treatment for different diseases (Scherr, 2009). According to John Hopkins ABX Guide app, when a doctor or an individual search for particular prescription or drug, it provides information on the recommended dosage and the side effects of the particular drug. ZocDoc, on the other hand, is a healthcare app that helps people to find and book appointments with doctors (Ventola, 2014). Finding a good doctor is a tiresome process and having an app that contains about the doctors is a huge value for many people.
Lastly, RevUp is also a mobile app in healthcare that enables the different specialist to work on a plan that fits them, and it provides information on general health. The RevUp app helps doctors to network with many people from different places. The main benefit of the RevUp app is that it greatly assists those people who are uninsured and those with less income.
Despite the growing demand for mobile apps in healthcare, it is as well faced with various challenges, which include security problems, complexity in the mobile system as well as bolstering patient engagement.
An individual’s information is an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to diagnosing health issues and resolving billing as well as payment issues. Many healthcare apps are faced with cyber attack ending up in offending the patients. The app storage should, therefore, be handled with a lot of sensitivity because of outside intrusions and security purposes (Ventola, 2014).
As security is the most important aspect of the mobile apps in healthcare, the designers of the mobile apps and devices make the apps difficult to use (Scherr et al., 2009). The apps become complex to implement hindering the work of the healthcare professionals, thus blocking gains in efficiency that should come with the mobile technologies
Maintaining a strong relationship and keeping the patients informed is vital. This objective plays a great significance in enhancing quality and transparency with doctors. Therefore, if the mobile apps in healthcare are not capable of delivering this information to patients then it will be difficult to provide quality services (Atun, 2015).
Mobile apps in healthcare encompass workflow services and networks used to optimize health care services. The mobile apps in health services send SMS appointments to patients as well as giving patients report on their health (Pandey et al., 2013). The mobile apps help in healthcare services in many ways. For example, remote sensors can automatically give information to doctors concerning them of their patients, thus warning them of any abnormalities. The apps also assist doctors to decide when a certain patient’s need medications through the data transmitted in the mobile apps (Van Velsen et al., 2013). In addition, the mobile apps in healthcare can act as a reminder or alerting doctors of a patient who has not taken their drugs. According to some studies in South Africa, medication compliance through the medical apps has increased from 50% to 90% (Ventola, 2014). Also, healthcare professional can access patient results anywhere at any time, thus assisting remote workers and enhancing patient care.
Mobile apps in healthcare can show better results in the patient’s treatment. The apps do improve not only conformity with treatment regimens but also the management of diseases through observing and transmitting data (Ozdalga, Ozdalga, & Ahuja, 2012). In diseases management, the mobile apps in health care play an important role in collecting data, thus showing early warning signs of patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart problem. The test equipment that gives out information directly to the doctors provides a good source of baseline data. Then the mobile apps in healthcare analyze it thus identifying early signs of worsening conditions or abnormalities.
The medical apps provide physicians to access a patient’s clinical data via the mobile devices. The apps also allow the viewing of medical scan images. For example, Mobile MIM is a free app for mobile devices that allows detached screening of x-rays and scan images (Atun, Sittampalam, & Mohan, 2015). This app permits users to keep their medical images as well as share them with physicians. The pictures can be uploaded and viewed in any setting. In many instances, remote analyses of scanned images through medical apps have been shown to be effective just like presenting them in a typical workplace. According to a particular medical group, they demonstrated that professionals could use their mobile devices to diagnose for critical disease accurately as if they were at their workplaces (Armas et al., 2009). The mobile apps are useful also for documenting images to help with diagnoses.
The mobile apps in healthcare can help in creating awareness of health issues through communication. According to research, an initiative in Africa sent out details on HIV awareness, and this resulted to 40% people requesting to have a test (Pearce et al., 2012). The mobile apps in healthcare have enhanced consultation of patients with various doctors. The apps have shown dramatic improvements in compliance with treatment programs. The medical apps allow closer contacts with doctors thus improving efficiency in surgeries (Michalski, B?ka?a, & B?ka?a, 2015).
It is not only the patients who benefit from access to information from the mobile app in healthcare but also the entire society too. The mobile apps in healthcare enhance quick diagnosis of potential epidemics and identifying appropriate treatments (Clauson et al., 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, mobile apps in healthcare are anticipated to continue to progress thus bringing additional and improved benefits to healthcare practices. However, despite their benefits, some of the healthcare professionals do not adopt their usage in their medical performances. The mobile apps in healthcare provide people with many advantages. Nevertheless, they are currently people are using them without much understanding of the benefits and risks they are associated with. Therefore, vigorous validation and creation of official medical apps are highly needed to ensure quality and safety use. With such measures put into practice, the major determinant of the apps may be able to provide accurate information to serve the important purpose of improving the lives of people.
References
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