Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Consumers are now more enthusiastic about mHealth


Like a boulder — or perhaps an avalanche — splashing into a pond, mHealth has sent powerful waves spreading across the continuum of care. You can feel the impact when your cardiologist uses his smartphone to take an ECG reading in his office, or you use yours to check tests results via a secure patient portal. You feel it when the orthopedic surgeon pulls up your son’s CT scan on an iPad to show him where he fractured his bone, or your friend with diabetes wears a glucose monitor to wirelessly transmit data to his physician — and especially when the nurse in the hospital uses a barcode scanner to confirm your mother receives the right dose of the right medication.

These are just a fraction of the countless ways mobile technology is making its mark everywhere, from hospitals to long-term care facilities to patients’ homes. Increasingly, healthcare organizations and clinicians are relying on mHealth to improve patient safety, outcomes and satisfaction within hospitals.

At the same time, they’re using mHealth to monitor and connect with patients in order to keep them out of the hospital. Over the next few years, the number of patients with chronic conditions — including heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and sleep apnea — who will wear wireless electronic devices is expected to climb as high as seven million. During home visits, home health nurses and therapists find mobile devices convenient and efficient for documenting and accessing patient information. And tablets are becoming popular tools for interactive “e-visits” with rural residents, seniors and people living with chronic conditions.

Meanwhile, physicians continue their love affair with tablets and smartphones, taking advantage of them to access EHRs, collaborate with peers or view test results anywhere, anytime. Nearly 70% of doctors use smartphones and 66% use tablets, according to InformationWeek’s Healthcare IT 2012 Priorities Survey. Some physicians have even started prescribing apps to their patients to encourage engagement, track medications, collect health data and help modify behavior.

This makes sense, given that consumers — already accustomed to using their mobile devices to shop, bank, book travel and more — also appear eager to access healthcare information on the go. In fact, preliminary research shows patients who are more connected are healthier and make smarter, more cost-effective choices for the services they need. Although a 2011 report from Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only 10% of smartphone users have downloaded health-related apps, Juniper Research predicts mHealth and medical app downloads will more than triple to 142 million by 2016.

A study by PwC found consumers in the U.S. and abroad highly enthusiastic about mHealth, with 59% reporting mobile health has given them solutions that have replaced some doctor visits, and nearly half saying they think it will change the way they manage their overall health, medication and chronic conditions. The catch is, many consumers still lack any electronic — let alone mobile — access to their medical records and healthcare providers. And many physicians remain reluctant to deliver care via mobile devices because payers don’t compensate them.

However, this is likely to change as value-based reimbursement models become the norm, and mHealth applications and technologies continue to demonstrate their ability to improve quality of care and reduce costs. It’s becoming increasingly clear that in addition to enabling caregivers to provide timely, cost-effective care, mHealth has the potential to fundamentally alter the way patients interact with their doctors and engage in — and take greater responsibility for — their own healthcare. And that could lead to some very positive outcomes.

Source: industryview

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