The medical sector has experienced a drastic improvement in the last decade. Diseases that were once thought to be incurable no longer exist while services to patients have been improved greatly. One of the biggest contributors to these positive changes has been technology. The integration of medicine with technology has basically raised the heights to what the medical community could achieve.
In particular, we are going to look at mobile technology and how it has been of benefit in the medical field. The use of mobile technology has enabled remote medicine to be achieved. This simply means that now patients do not have to physically visit the doctor at the hospital for various health services.
Some of the health services that have benefited from remote medicine include:
- Medical consultation.
- The internet has brought information and experts closer to the people. This, coupled with the increase of use of tablets and smartphones has ensured that many people can consult an expert from the comfort of their homes.
- Remote health monitoring.
- Some health conditions can be remotely monitored through the use of mobile sensors which send back patient medical data to the doctor. This is beneficial in that it saves time and eliminates travel costs.
- Education.
- A number of smartphone applications have been of great benefit to medical students. Some applications provide an extensive database of human anatomical drawings while others are medical dictionaries.
- Reproductive health.
- For women, the integration of technology and medicine has been of great benefits. Various smartphone applications have been designed to help keep track of aspects such as menstruation, ovulation, birth control and even pregnancy. The above is usually achieved through the use of applications on either smartphones or tablets.
The portability of these devices has enabled many people to access the mentioned services easily wherever they are. Below are some of the most popular health applications used in the delivery of modern health services to patients.
- Visible health’s DrawMD.
- Compatible with the iPad tablet, this application shows, in clear graphical detail, what will happen during an operation. It is mostly used by doctors to explain the whole process of an operation to a patient in a simple and clear manner. •Visible Body’s 3D Human – This application has a database of over 2500 diagrams of various organs and parts of the human body. It also contains definitions for various medical terms. It is ideal for both doctors and medical students.
- iBP Blood pressure app.
- This is an app that enables a patient to track his or her blood pressure without needing to go to the hospital. The track record is then stored for use by a doctor during diagnosis or treatment.
- Medical dictionary.
- This is the perfect tool for a medical student and even for a doctor. This digital dictionary has meanings of over 128.000 medical terms including diseases, treatment methods and drugs.
- Eating disorder assessments.
- For those who are susceptible to bulimia or anorexia, this is the perfect app. It makes use of a number of assessments and surveys to determine if a patient is in danger of any of the above conditions.