Smartphone: A Prime addition to Health Care

The innovation of Smartphone seems to be one of the biggest contributions to the healthcare as yet and it is rapidly changing the face of health care and, I also believe that in near future, it might change the approach of healthcare provided by professionals to consumers. According to California Healthcare Foundation, 6000 healthcare related applications were available within the Apple AppStore as of February 2010 and of these, 73% were intended for use by consumer or patient end- users, while 27% were targeted to health care professionals. There is a full PDF document available online; you can view on http://www.chcf.org/~/media/MEDIA%20LIBRARY%20Files/PDF/H/PDF%20HowSmartphonesChangingHealthCare.pdf. I found this PDF file very interesting because it has mentioned some of excellent Smartphone's applications that can be used for healthcare.

According to A PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS survey, half of the US health population would like to receive consultations over the phone because the Smartphone can deliver any kind of laboratory results over the phone as soon as they are completed and this will help in quick follow up instructions if the need of seeing a physician is urgent.

Apple has demonstrated 2 new applications of blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring on iPhone-3 operating system to collect and send these data automatically to a doctor at regular intervals. In addition,  QxMD ECG(electrocardiogram) app to interpret ECG results, pregnancy wheel software, a gastroenterology tool, use of Vigilance app to track patients' vital signs by physicians, use of AirStrip Obstetrics iphone apps to access fetal heart tracings, Catra system for an early diagnosis of cataract, i-stethoscopes, remote physician consultation are the best examples of the healthcare applications available for the Smartphone users. RxCalc, MedCalc, Lexi-comp, Epocrates Rx, Skyscape are some of other applications which I have used on my smartphone as a pharmacy student.

The application of i-Stethoscope uses sensors in the phone to monitor patient’s heartbeat which is available on the following video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11144994

The characteristics of the smartphones mentioned above must say that the growth of Smartphones will increase in next couple of years and there will be so many consumers who would rather want to be in touch with their doctors by text, chat and email communication than by in person.