The invention of technology is a fortune to the world. Currently, it is hard to imagine the world without technology. In every sector, technology has become extremely critical. One such industry is healthcare system ( Krebs & Duncan, 2015). Today, technology is everything in the hospital. From admission into the hospital as the patient’s record are punched into the computer, to diagnosis where different instrument which is reliant on technology is used, to the discharge of the patient where printed discharge sheet is used, technology has dominated the healthcare system. The different technology applies to healthcare system either directly or indirectly to carry out the medical operation. However, one of the most import technology device which has become critical in hospital and healthcare sector is a mobile phone. The mobile phone is an electronic device which is used in communication. It comes in different sizes and currently, there are is a smartphone which can accommodate different application which is critical in the healthcare sector and other sectors in the entire world ( Nasi et al., 2015). The mobile phone has played a crucial role in the healthcare sector, and its importance in healthcare system cannot be underestimated. It is used in the different area in the healthcare sector as shall be discussed in this paper.
The mobile phone is used in many areas of the healthcare practices. The first area is health education and teaching. Today, the youth are digital, and mobile phone usage has become extremely unavoidable. The mobile phone through application has revolutionized the field of education in medicine and healthcare education ( Årsand et al., 2012). Currently, all the information about specific healthcare topics is available online. Further are a thousand tutors online who are qualified in the medical courses and professional and who are willing to provide training and teaching to the students and those who have interest in the field of medicine. All there resources are viable, and student can retrieve these resources online and use them to gain knowledge which can then be used in the medical profession ( Gravenhorst et al., 2015). In this case, it is not only the medical students who gain from the mobile applications; the trained medical professionals such as the pharmacists and doctors have had an opportunity to walk with a medical dictionary on their pockets. Mobile has a medical dictionary application which has all the medical terms a doctor can be in need of around the globe. This has made it easy for such professionals to simply refer to such dictionaries in case there is a confusion or complex word in the medical field they would wish to know more about.
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The second area is the electronic medical records. The electronic medical record is a system where patients' data are kept safe from any intruder to enhance safety and patient confidentiality. It is critical to note that in the healthcare system, patient confidentiality is vital in enhancing the good relationship between the clinicians and the patients and thus, play a big role in proper treatments (Qureshi et al., 2015). The mobile phone plays a critical role in enhancing safety storage of data for a patient. There is an application build on Microsoft called the HealthVault. This is an application which has a capability of storing confidential medical data for the patient. These can include data from the health fitness, treatment data, and clinical data for the children's and much more. This application is also essential since it remains the patient about their records and what more they can do to help their health condition stabilizes. This also helps in keeping the records of the patient safe and confidential ( Briz-Ponce & Juanes-Méndez, 2015).
The next area where the mobile phone is widely used it is in health promotion for the patient and general public. Heath promotion is all about creating awareness on specific healthcare concerns. This can be healthcare hygiene, particular medication and much more. This is one area in the healthcare sector where the mobile phone has played a critical role. There is a patient-centered application which is tuned to perform different types of functions to the patient. The current mobile app has the capability of managing the lifestyle diseases, smoking session, and even chronic conditions ( DeSouza et al., 2014). For instance, there is over 80 diabetes application which has a lot of information on the how to manage diabetes and how to stay safe from diabetes. These include an application which helps the diabetic patients monitor their blood pressure; there are those who provide information on the diabetic medication and the insulin logs, and much more. Other diabetic applications are those that are integrated with the patient and their physician ( Hampshire et al., 2015). These are plication which can connect the patient with his or her physician so that they can communicate well through the application. This is important for the patients and physician such as a remote therapist since they can formulate information based on the data received from the patient and give them feedback on what to do or what changes to make ( West, 2012).
Physical fitness is a new area in the healthcare sector where concerns have been raised due to the growing rate of chronic and lifestyle illness in the global populace. Also, this is where there are a good number of mobile application which has helped the population deal with the chronic diseases. Weight loss and exercise categories are endowed with an application which is critical to the users. “The built-in camera, standard in smartphones today, allows users to record a photo diary of daily food and drink. These photos may be transferred to a server, which identifies and quantifies the food portion” (Coureau et al., 2014). “A weight loss trial utilized a mobile app to monitor dietary intake, body weight and objectively-measured physical activity (obtained from a Bluetooth-enabled accelerometer) of its participants.” Indeed, the mobile application has helped many people managed illness which is related to the fitness, and this could not have been achieved without the use of such mobile apps in this sector ( Hallberg et al., 2016).
The next area is the telemedicine area. This is one area where people have approached the use of mobile in the healthcare sector. Telemedicine has not only made things easy for the patients and doctors but has also reduced the cost of healthcare services in the healthcare sector. For instance, “in the mobile component of the CAALYX/eCAALYX (Complete Ambient Assisted Living Experiment/Enhanced Complete Ambient Assisted Living Experiment) prototype systems and much more” ( Majeed-Ariss et al., 2015).
In summary, the application of mobile phone has done a great job in providing healthcare services to the population. Through various mobile apps, patients and medical staff have been in a position to receive and share information in a manner which has improved the healthcare sectors. It is thus recommendable that people should be encouraged to make use of such application to ensure that there has information which can help improve their health conditions.
References
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