USE OF MOBILE DEVICES BY HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS.
Based on the feedback that we received last week. Tanya and I will be adjusting the
sections into Provider, Patient, and Payer for Benefits and Drawbacks. Winnie for the
RESULTS you need to include that there are more benefits and elaborate. Winnie for the
CONCLUSION you need to write how to fix/improve drawbacks and conclude.
Winnie the
RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS was too repetitive. Zaryan for the APPLICATIONS
TYPES you need to write how the app ties in the Provider, Patient, and Payer with each
app. Also Zaryan you need to cite the rest of your sources with subscripts and Winnie
finish up the introduction so we can put the subscripts in order of appearance.
Look for websites you want to use these are some that we found.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2476623,00.asp
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-medical-apps/
Intro/Conc/Results
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029126/
INTRODUCTION
The use of mobile devices by healthcare professionals (HCPs) has transformed many aspects of
clinical practice.1,2 Mobile devices have become commonplace in healthcare settings, leading to
rapid growth in the development of medical software applications (apps) for these platforms.1,2
Numerous apps are now available to assist HCPs with many important tasks, such as:
information and time management; health record maintenance and access; communications and
consulting; reference and information gathering; patient management and monitoring; clinical
decision-making; and medical education and training.1?8
Mobile devices and apps provide many benefits for HCPs, perhaps most significantly increased
access to point-of-care tools, which has been shown to support better clinical decision-making
and improved patient outcomes.2,8?10 However, some HCPs remain reluctant to adopt their
use.1,4 Despite the benefits they offer, better standards and validation practices regarding mobile
medical apps need to be established to ensure the proper use and integration of these increasingly
sophisticated tools into medical practice.4,8,10,11 These measures will raise the barrier for entry
into the medical app market, increasing the quality and safety of the apps currently available for
use by HCPs.11
Mobile healthcare can be traced back to the beginning of the twenty first century when
smartphones were introduced to the market. Just like most technologies, mobile health
applications started slow and small back in 2003 when the penetration of smartphones with the
capability of running such applications but has since increased in a rate we would call
exponential. For instance, in the year 2009 when a partnership between the Foundation for the
National Institutes of Health, the National Institutes of Health and the mHealth Alliance held a
mobile health inaugural summit only a little less than 1000 people were in attendance.18 Fast
forward to 12 months later, in 2010, 2400 people were in attendance in the conference which was
about 300% the attendance of the previous year. This could be attributed to the increase in the
penetration of smartphones globally, where in some countries the penetration of wireless devices
is way above 100%. The third world has also not been left behind as more and more people are
having access to smartphones capable of running mobile health applications.
Go to:
Types and Prevalence of Devices Used
The introduction of mobile computing devices (personal digital assistants [PDAs], followed by
smartphones and tablet computers) has greatly impacted many fields, including medicine. Health
care professionals now use smartphone or tablet computers for functions they used to need a
pager, cell phone, and PDA to accomplish.7 Smartphones and tablets combine both computing
and communication features in a single device that can be held in a hand or stored in a pocket,
allowing easy access and use at the point of care.7 In addition to voice and text, new mobile
device models offer more advanced features, such as web searching, global positioning systems
(GPS), high-quality cameras, and sound recorders.12 With these features, as well as powerful
processors and operating systems, large memories, and high-resolution screens, mobile devices
have essentially become handheld computers.12
USE OF MOBILE DEVICES BY HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
