Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Today’s world is one that is becoming more fast paced daily. Transportation, internet, shipping choices, and even how we dine, everyone wants things to be faster and faster to accommodate the ever changing lifestyles. Therefore it is easy to see how even in health care the need for speed is necessary from procedures to recovery times medical professionals and facilities alike are attempting to quicken the health care process.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

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Mobile Health Care
One method of speeding up the healthcare process is by making information more readily available. hence the introduction of mobile devices within the healthcare system. Mobile devices today are completely different from the cellphones of the past. Initially mobile phones were exactly that phones that could move. however over time mobile phones have moved from the basics of talk and then text and have evolved into mini portable computers.
Apple and Rehabcare currently work together to help streamline the way
Apple has worked with an organization , rehabcare to create applications and software that works with the iOS devices to help create a more efficient health care environment. The changes which takes place with the implementation of iOS devices which include both iPhone and iPad is a critical component to creating a more productive workforce including not only areas of health care but also the business end as well. One the health care end there is a patient information on the business and administrative components such as patient information concerning insurance and contact information as well.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay
Impact of Mobile Technology on Quality of Health Care
For instance think about the emergency room process. Someone commistajam ‘ses in and the first thing they do is tell someone what is wrong.

Innovations in mobile technology have brought remote healthcare management to the forefront of advanced medical care. The ability to record the cardiac activity of a patient at home has been available for some time. But that method utilized a recording device worn by the patient, which needed to be brought in to a hospital or doctor’s office for a healthcare professional to analyze. Today, real-time monitoring in the patient’s home is a reality.
Three of the telecommunication giants have stepped into wireless healthcare management arena in efforts to provide advanced medical care through new digital delivery systems. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have created partnerships with health care monitoring vendors to provide in home services to…show more content…
Hospital readmissions carry huge costs for hospitals and add greatly to the cost of healthcare.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay Remote patient monitoring has the potential to prevent many such readmissions.” 2 Ultimately, the software, equipment and cloud solutions the companies and vendors provide will have to demonstrate a high quality of security and reliability. Patients’ private medical data as well as their lives are at risk in this new arena of technology. The use of mobile technology in the healthcare industry has exploded in the last ten years. Mobile health or mHealth, provides an entire new aspect of the relationship between patients and their doctors and other medical providers. Mobile devices place important and critical information into a medical professional’s hands in real-time. Doctors can monitor a patient’s condition more frequently, allowing them to make better and more informed decisions and diagnoses. In the hectic and harried environment of a hospital, a nurse or technician does not have to search for an available workstation when they can pull up an individual chart on their tablet.

Review the Healthit.gov website at
http://www(dot)healthit(dot)gov/providers-professionals/your-mobile-device-and-health-information-privacy-and-
security.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay
Prepare a paper that addresses the following aspects:
♦ Choose at least four of the reading or video options focused on securing patient information using mobile devices.
♦ Read or watch the chosen content.
♦ Analyze the value of these devices in your healthcare setting.
♦ Describe how you would protect such technology and the information that it contains, using this week’s reading and your own research.
♦ Describe how important the use of these products is to healthcare delivery and the management of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes.
Requirements:
♦ Your paper should be 4-6 pages in length and conform to CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements.
♦ Include at least three scholarly references in addition to the course textbook. The CSU-Global Library is a good place to find these references.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay
♦ Remember, you must support your thinking/opinions and prior knowledge with references. All facts must be supported. In-text references used throughout the assignment must be included in an APA-formatted reference list.
Reach out to your instructor if you have questions about the assignment.

Mobile devices have created a new communication channel between healthcare service providers and patients. However, the benefits of mobile devices in healthcare go beyond the communication channels. They enable better coordination, improve diagnostic accuracy, and build a bridge of trust.
Despite the benefits, lots of healthcare providers are reluctant to integrate mobile phones and tablets into their day-to-day practice. The reason for reluctance might be resistance to change. But some providers have a valid point that lack of better standards and policies in smart-phone use in healthcare can contribute to security risks. So it’s important to understand the benefits and how they can be incorporated without causing any harm.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Smartphones are quickly becoming a nearly ubiquitous technology. In 2009, approximately 64 percent of physicians in the U.S. owned smartphones [1]. Just 1 year later, a separate investigation put smartphone ownership among health care professionals in the U.S. at 81 percent, growing to 91 percent in 2012. Smartphone ownership among European health care professionals grew at an even faster rate, from a lower initial penetration of 44 percent in 2010 to 81 percent by 2012 [2].Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Closely associated with mobile technology and equally important for mobile health care are tablet computers, which exhibited an equally impressive climb in usage by physicians from 30 percent in 2011 to 62 percent in 2012 to more than 72 percent in 2013 [3]. The rapid ascendance of the tablet is not surprising, given that 51 percent of health care professionals use tablets for accessing electronic health records (EHRs), the second most frequent use after sending emails [4]. These clear trends towards mobile device adoption, both in general society and within the medical community, have positive implications for patients’ health and the patient-clinician relationship.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Out-of-Clinic Use
The first frontier of mobile health care technology is out-of-clinic patient use of software applications (apps) and peripheral hardware that plugs into or attaches to a smartphone or tablet. Already, smartphone-compatible medical devices such as weight scales, blood pressure cuffs, and pulse oximeters are making their way into patients’ homes. By providing health information and instructions for use in a user-friendly interface, smartphone-synced devices empower patients to take an active role in their own health. Unlike older generations of at-home monitoring equipment that required manual record keeping, these smartphone devices’ associated apps allow patient data to be automatically recorded and stored in personalized profiles that can be transmitted securely to the patient’s medical home. They also present that data in comprehensive visual formats such as graphs that convey trends over time and often include explanations of appropriate ranges for a health metric, given patient-specific factors such as age, weight, and sex. By eschewing the need for tedious data collection and putting the emphasis on educating the patient about his or her own health, such apps may ultimately enhance patient engagement.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Currently, there are myriad such medical devices on the market, each of which interfaces with its own app. Looking forward, the next generation of mobile technology needs take into account multiple-device integration and the tech-savvy patient trying to keeping track of data from different devices. Some apps are already moving in this direction [5-8], for example interfacing with both a scale and a blood pressure monitor in addition to monitoring health and fitness activities, providing back-end cloud-based health information management that can interface with any smartphone medical device [9], or putting forth an all-in-one tool to measure temperature, blood pressure, and blood oxygenation [10]. With one app at the center of a family of devices, patients can centralize their at-home health care.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

In addition, smartphone compatibility has put even more powerful medical devices, previously found only in doctor’s offices and hospitals, directly into patients’ hands. Visual acuity assessment, optic disc visualization (ophthalmoscope), inner ear visualization (otoscope), lung function (spirometer), heart function (ECG), body sound analysis (stethoscope), and even sonography (ultrasound) can all now be conducted using an app or peripheral hardware, and most of these are already—or are on their way to becoming—FDA approved [11]. However, these devices are not meant to replace visits to a clinician. They simply make it easier to collect clinically relevant data, thus allowing clinicians to spend more time analyzing and interpreting data, counseling patients, and developing treatment plans.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

In-Clinic Use
As smartphone-enhanced medical devices continue to be integrated into patients’ lives at home, the next step is clinical adoption. Early adopters will be clinicians who already use many of the devices and are confident in the capabilities and the accuracy of the technology. Eric Topol, MD, for example, who has twice diagnosed arrhythmias on airplanes using a mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) [12], is a leading supporter of smartphone-based health care. Mobile physicians, such as those in emergency medicine, will find clear value in portable devices that can, for example, capture focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) images and send them through a smartphone to the hospital ahead of the patient for pre-arrival diagnosis by a physician [13].Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Primary care clinicians may also find value in using mobile technology in the clinic. One of the biggest challenges with any new device is its potential to distract the clinician and alienate the patient, ultimately emphasizing technology over people. When the clinician becomes too focused on the data collection process, he or she begins to lose the personal connection that lies at the heart of the patient-clinician relationship. For at least two reasons, the smartphone offers the potential to usher in a new era of medical devices that reverses this trend. First, smartphone-based medical devices are typically less invasive and easier to use than their predecessors. For example, a single-channel ECG can be integrated directly into a durable iPhone case. Though a one-lead ECG will of course not provide as comprehensive an assessment of heart function as the twelve-lead ECG, it can quickly and easily perform basic heart monitoring without being cumbersome—ideal for quick screenings or event monitoring. Likewise, plug-and-play blood pressure cuffs connect directly to a smartphone; the clinician does not need to simultaneously manipulate both a stethoscope and sphygmomanometer while trying to speak to the patient. Instead, the clinician can focus on engaging the patient about his or her health and not be distracted by the data collection process.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Second, the apps of smartphone-based devices typically provide a visual or auditory representation of the collected data that can be shared, allowing the patient to better understand what the doctor is looking at and listening for. For example, when a doctor uses a standard ophthalmoscope to examine a patient’s eye, the patient has no idea what the doctor is seeing. With mobile digital imaging and recording apps [14], on the other hand, the doctor can record a snapshot of the patient’s optic disc, which can then be shown and explained to the patient and included in the patient’s EHR along with the doctor’s notes. Similarly, whereas stethoscopes allow only the doctor to hear a patient’s body sounds, digital stethoscopes [15] not only record and play the sounds but also present a visual representation of them.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

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While these smartphone-based clinical tools have much potential, there are clear obstacles to their widespread adoption [16], including potentially disrupted clinical communication, social disengagement, technology failures, and patient harm. In this last category, not only do smartphones and associated devices have the potential to spread nosocomial infections, they may also lead to breached confidentiality. Clinicians must determine whether they should collect and exchange patient data using their own personal devices or adopt devoted clinical devices for such activity. The mobile health industry has indicated its understanding of this privacy issue, so many device manufacturers have prioritized patient data security by integrating HIPAA-compliant communication systems [17].Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

In summary, smartphone- and tablet-based medical devices and apps have significant potential to affect the patient-clinician relationship and improve the efficiency of the health care system. Moving forward, it will be important for early adopters to address the problems associated with these devices in both the ambulatory and clinical setting and to optimize workflow so the broader clinical and patient communities may adopt them.

Here are the top advantages of using mobile devices by providers as well as patients and how they are transforming healthcare:Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

1. Better point-of-care coordination
In a traditional hospital, when a patient with an acute condition is discharged after the initial treatment and stabilization, the patient is given prescriptions and instructions by a nurse. The nurse explains how the prescriptions should be administered as well as the test and follow-up process. There is no way to ensure that the patient has understood the instructions or is following the procedures properly. Poor communication, product name ambiguities, and misunderstanding the product use instructions can cause these medication errors. This can lead to recurrence of the ailment and adversely impact patient’s health. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), prescription errors are responsible for 70% of medication errors.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Mobile devices are changing this dynamic. Doctors and nurses can now coordinate better with the patient about the diagnosis, medication and the follow-up process. They can also monitor whether the patient has understood the instructions properly. This point-of-care coordination is making a huge difference in patient recovery and decreasing the number of re-admissions. It is streamlining the process between the inpatient and outpatient care.

2. Seamless data flow
The healthcare system is a complex network. There is a continuous data flow between the healthcare providers and the patients. Along with this, the hospital administration also needs access to the data for accounting purposes. For this reason, the healthcare data network is supposed to conform with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This act lays down the rules of sharing medical information amongst institutions.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay
Mobile technology is making this complex ecosystem move information more efficiently. Data can move through the network faster with phones and tablets working as end-points.

Healthcare providers can now have more control over the dispersion of information. They don’t have to worry about misplaced papers, files, and folders. However on top of all this, cyber security is a major concern. But the pros of mobile health technology outweigh its cons. Moreover, mHealth interoperability has the potential to boost healthcare and improve overall provider and patient satisfaction.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Providers are investing in systems that can securely and seamlessly exchange data across the network.

ALSO READ: DECODING HIPAA TECHNICAL SAFEGUARDS AND PHYSICAL CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
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3. Direct patient management
Initally, healthcare providers only had limited access to their patients and their data. There was no way to monitor the effect of medicine and administer up-to-date remedies directly. Mobile devices are changing this dynamic.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Phones, tablets, and wearables are being used to take regular vitals and keep logs on patients. Doctors and nurses can check up on the patient directly using mobile devices which can show how to administer a procedure. Providers can even teach family members the different aspects of patient care using mobile communication apps. Through the use of mobile devices, healthcare providers are taking a more active role in guiding their patients in the right direction. It has been helpful in improving the quality of care dramatically.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

4. Enhances physician efficiency
Highly functioning physicians are the backbone of an efficient healthcare system. But it is a high-stress job. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), about 60 percent of Emergency Medicine doctors feel burned out. Physicians often complain that they have to spend a lot of time in data entry and other administrative tasks. Only 27 percent of their time is spent in patient care. In order to battle this problem, service providers are investigating ways to make the medical job less stressful. Phones and tablets are helping doctors solve problems faster with less stress.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Physicians can use mobile devices to record patient history with minimal errors. These devices provide better access to latest drug information and thus help make better decisions. They automate a lot of paperwork which frees up a physician’s time. It also means that now doctors have every patients’ information at their fingertips, so they have to spend less time providing the same level of care. Overall, the use of mobile devices in healthcare has improved physician performance and ensured better patient care.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

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5. Increases diagnostic accuracy
Keeping track of patient records using paper was a huge burden for the healthcare industry. Computers helped lessen the burden. Mobile devices are taking this to a new level through eliminating the need for paper usage. This has led to an increase in diagnostic accuracy. According to mHealth statistics 2016, 93% of physicians believe that mobile health apps can improve patient’s health. (GreatCall)

Doctors and nurses are able to keep accurate and descriptive notes. Fewer mistakes are made due to ineligible handwritings. Mobile apps can run automatic checks on prescriptions and decisions. As a result, prescription errors have gone down significantly. As bedside tools, these devices are helping recognize causes and symptoms of pathogens and infectious diseases faster.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

6. Provides convenience
Even in the field of medical education, mobile devices are replacing bulky medical textbooks. Health care professionals can rapidly access information from their portable devices. They don’t have to waste time running to the library or carrying heavy medical books around. Students can find books, guidelines, reviews and new medical literature and journals conveniently from their smart-phones.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

On the other hand, doctors and patients can share information without the need for physical meetings. With the advent of telemedicine apps, video conferencing is now possible.

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7. Caters to customizations
Physicians deal with large numbers of patients every day. It’s impossible for them to provide individual attention to each patient in a timely manner. Mobile devices are helping physicians custom design remedies without investing a huge amount of time.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Doctors can use patient data to create profiles and categorize them. These profiles can help doctors pinpoint the optimum solution for each patient. Without the help of mobile devices, this process can be complicated. But the convenience of mobile devices makes it easy for doctors to create individual level customization without investing too much time.

8. Real-time communication
Of course, the obvious benefit of mobile devices in healthcare is the improvement in communication. Doctors and nurses can inspect the patient’s condition remotely using HD cameras. Regular real-time communication between provider and patients also builds rapport.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

But the benefits of mobile devices in healthcare reach beyond the doctor-patient relationship. It is also promoting collaboration, consulting and sharing of knowledge globally. Experts from different corners of the world can consult each other in real-time to learn and share. In turn, the patients benefit from these collaborations and information sharing. In a survey of medical schools, about 80 percent of medical students used mobile devices to talk to their fellow students.

Conclusion
No doubt mobile technology is changing our daily routines. And now, it is changing the way we heal. The benefits of mobile devices in healthcare are discussed above to give you an appreciation of the possibilities in this area. However, the risks should not be ignored.Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay

Using them without proper standards can lead to unsafe practices and breach of patient privacy. Healthcare service providers should thus implement a strategy that will help keep the quality of service high while keeping the patients safe. With a robust mobile strategy, healthcare providers can take advantage of the accurate and real-time information help improve end-to-end healthcare processes. Mobile Devices Within The Healthcare System Essay