Technology is changing and it is changing the world around. Today’s healthcare is very much a product of technology. The changing landscape has an impact on healthcare too and quite so naturally!!
Healthcare too can not be untouched by the digital world…..when everything is turning paperless and virtual!! It is not just the operations or the treatments that the patients undergo that are changing even the entire user experience universe in the healthcare arena is set to change.
In this ever-expanding stream of advances that are accruing, there are simple Mobility Solutions that can make a difference. These solutions obviously need to provide some basic compliance in terms of HIPAA ( Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ).
Let us look at some use cases and examples of such mobile applications for healthcare which can make patient care an easier and better experience:
Creating an electronic medical record of a patient:
Today hospitals in advanced nations have their own Electronic Medical Records systems. This definitely will help one go paperless but more than that it will help treat better by having a correct history of the patient and also making it some much easier to quickly access the data in a more intelligent way. These systems don’t stop at this, they are even integrated to other ancillary systems like that of pharmacies through intermediate conduits Surescripts networks.
Currently, the electronic records are typically kept by the hospitals but this still restricts the patient’s medical data availability only with hospitals. Thus the real owners of the data don’t tend it own it with them. This definitely will change probably change down the lane. Surely there would be more centralized databases that are shared by different hospitals and the data available as something that the patient would have visibility to and rights to allow rights to whomsoever allowed to access the information.
Currently, typically the EMR/EHRs are providing mobile access to the data in the respective systems. Currently, the EHRs have a EHR interoperability as a feature and not as a norm. The ability to access data from one to another EMR is still not a mandate. A common EHR for a complete history for a patient is still a long dream.
In such a situation, a mobile application that can generically map to multiple APIs which may be provided by different hospitals/providers can possibly become a starting point for the integration of data. This way the application can act as a common view for multiple EMR or EHR systems.
Patient Care and Management Mobility Solutions
There can be simple applications that can form a suite of mobility solutions to help doctors with proactive monitoring and ensuring proper care is being undertaken for the patient.
Medical Rounds Tracker
A typical practice with doctors is that they need to go for rounds every day to monitor the patient’s progress. A mobile application that can help the doctors make a quick note when they are on the rounds which hooks into the central system. Thus they can directly change the treatment by a few clicks or swipes. This way they can ensure that these instructions are reflected and percolated and there is no gap like an instruction did not get followed.
Treatment Reckoner
Many times the nurses have to go through each patient’s file to ensure that the proper medicines are given at the proper time and in correct dosage. If this available in a mobile application, the nurses can easily view them and as well as mark them as given to the patient or not. This way the doctors will also be on track as to what treatment has been given to the patient. Thus in case of emergency, some extra pill or dosage was given to the patient, the doctor will come to know instantly by looking at the latest medicine given.
Patient Vital Stats Monitor
Another mobility solution that would be of great use is that of providing the vital statistics of the patient. With technologies like the internet of things (IoT) making new strides, new devices known as the internet of medical things (IomT) are going to make their presence. These devices would provide a live stream of IoT data viz patient-generated health data (PGHD) to a central server and this would be made available to doctors and nurses through a mobile application.
Clinical Decision Helper
There are systems known as Clinical Decision Support System, which help in making clinical decisions. These systems bring in to decision making the best practices available. Typically the doctor would input into the system patient parameters and treatment given, the system would now come up with options or suggestions for the decision making or next best course of action. Mobile application forms the best medium for extending the CDSS to be carried along where ever the doctor currently is present.
Communication and Tracking
Hospitals and their staff need to act and respond to situations very quickly and effectively. The below mobile applications would help enhance operations:
Code Buzzer
Many times in hospital tracking where a particular doctor/assistant/technicians/nurse are currently located is needed especially in emergencies. It also many times necessary to reach out to the doctor on move. Although there are mobile which helps us reach out to a doctor, one may choose to ignore or may spend time talking to someone without knowing that there is an emergency which the doctor needs to attend to. Hospitals typically use codes to tell the staff the kind of emergencies. Like code blue tells one that there is a medical emergency. A mobile application that can send out this emergency would really help. This kind of a buzzer or reach out application is very important so that the priorities get the needed attention. All the important doctors will get alerted and would make it to the location where the code got triggered. Further, the doctors could get more information in terms which patient this got triggered by and what history of the patient is by the time he reaches the point of emergency.
Reach Out
There can be a custom mobile chat application that easily allows the patient to connect with doctors well as for nurses to talk and clarify things and vice versa. Such an integrated tool would give access to the patient’s information and health record directly from the chat window thus doctor can readily look at the patient information when communicating with others.
Track Staff
The tracking solution would need the implementation of IoT based tracking and monitoring systems which can help track not only the people but also can be used to track important assets within the hospitals. Thus if one needs to where the nearest oxygen cylinder is, it can easily be found by tracking its live position. One can easily track where doctors or staff members and take a decision as to which doctor or staff based on location.
There are many such mobility solutions one can think of building based on ones own choice of where to draw the line between Quality of Service and Cost of Service. Call us or contact us for discussing further on how you can improve upon your service quotient by utilizing our skills in developing ios as well as android and windows based mobility solutions.
