How Apps Can Change Our Health Care Environment - Essay Example

How apps can change our health care environment Introduction: Technology has become an integral part of our society and we find its applications in every domain, ranging from the basic daily life activities to recreational and other functions. Modern technology has completely changed the pattern in which numerous functions are being performed in health care. The introduction of health care applications by numerous operating systems and numerous platforms such as cell phones, tablets, computers have added another dimension to how technology has been benefiting patients. Technology has made the domain of health care safer. This trend is relatively new and not all operating systems have completely embraced it totally, however this is slowly creeping into the field of medical science enabling more benefits for patient care. The language of medicine must be easy to interpret and should not be restricted to only people in medicine. With introduction of the concept of online applications that are patented by the given operating systems, large number of Health care associated applications are available in the online market which entail the different domains of health care, such as diagnosis of numerous diseases, serving as a guide and manual, remedial actions suggestion, medical dictionaries, medicine names, nearby pharmacies and numerous other sources that facilitate the health care sector in a positive way. Pre requisites: Certain pre requisites apply to the usage of health care applications on the medium of mobile phone. These entail the regulatory body instructions, the clients awareness level, establishing of policies for its promotion, the market promotion policies, their availability factor, language use factor and various other factors that must be taken into account while handling health care applications and promoting them. Goals and deliverables: The goals of this paper are to provide introduction and familiarization of the concepts of these application. Point wise the goals of this paper is to highlight the following areas: 1. Importance of medical apps 2. Their benefits 3. Their usage and their applicability 4. Potential hazards and considerations 5. The major operating systems that provide the given services and features 6. Overview of the F.D.A role in terms of the present day rules in place and the future considerations, with mobile phones becoming part of nearly every individual’s life, regulations are needed to be brought into action. The apps that have been discovered: Numerous operating systems have launched applications for use in the health care. Apple Inc. is one of the leaders in this field. It launched this service couple of years ago. IMedicalApps is one sush endeavor undertaken by Apple Inc. and it has a number of applications under its belt that facilitate better health care knowledge and awareness. The Android Operating system is not far behind and it has introduced numerous applications for the same purpose. Applications may be created in different ways. Some may contain technical information for the health care professional and others for patients and their families people who may need the information. Apart from the mobile application provides, other PSTN enabled networks are also aiming to catch up fast on the applications. Verizon is one of them that has joined the bandwagon in recent times and through a collaboration with BL health services provider, they aim to facilitate the users in a certain way possible. AT&T has also jumped in and recent introduction of a service called the “intelligent pill bottle cap” is an awareness related application used for the same purpose of providing the clients with a timely prescription manual. Health calculator: This application may be used to determine the amount of calories that people consume daily, along with other mathematical figures that must be kept in mind such as the weight of patients and their height. Determining accurate blood pressures, sugar levels and other relevant information can be components of such applications. Using QxMD is another application that is used as a medical calculator for same purpose. Ever note applications: Other applications launched by Apple Inc. are related to documents that can be used health professionals in keeping records of their daily, weekly and monthly blood pressure, sugar level and other information. Keeping records of other activities may get stored electronically using Ever note application. Medscape: This is more or less like the other more commonly used application called the Epocrates .A apple Inc proprietary application that can be operated both on the cell phone and the tablet, it provides a wide array of options. Not just does it provide details about the medicine and the amount of intake but also details about a certain specific disease that may have been incurred. The purpose of this application is to impart information to the common user and facilitate them in maintaining the health care in a better state and shape. Netra: A software cum application developed by the M.I.T experts in the field of program and application development have introduced this application with due consideration of people with poor eye sight. However Netra is conditioned to using of a extra mounted device which allows checking the eye sight against that device that enables making reading into the software. Resolution MD: A technical application directed towards the x rays and cardiograph replacement. The earlier images can be magnified and seen through this application. It also allows the video viewing. I Stethoscope: This particular application, another patented one of Apple is established for determining the heart beat of an individual. With this application installed, the user may place the phone near the heart and it will record the number of beats per minute enabling the determination of heart beat and further comparing with the normal heart beat of a common person. Medical Radio: Unlike other visual applications, this one serves as audio service for health considerations. The aim of this application is to impart the knowledge necessary along with the latest developments taking place in the field of medical science and health care. This allows users to interact with the service providers and enables direct resolution of numerous health care related issues. Dedicated fifteen minutes run time is enabled which serves for direct contact between the people who may have any query pertinent to their personal health and other related problems. On the other end, group of specialists entertain the clients and ensure that their problems are solved or directed to the right form of guidance and medical treatment. Cures A-Z Application: This application is generic in its purpose and working and targets the people that may not have any prior medical knowledge. Unlike other specialized applications that are more suited for the usage of the physicians, this application enables helping those who may not have other sources to find information from. Apart from the diseases, this particular application provides guidelines and tips which can come in handy for maintaining healthy diet and physical health. Instant Heart Rate: There are number of medical applications available. One similar app is that of heart beat determination named as “Instant Heart Rate” (Krouse). This application has found around four million downloads from over thousands of users across the world. This application is highly useful for patients with heart diseases, and since such patients need to keep a check on the heart beat and its normal state, thereby this application serves like a doctor in hand. Radio Pedia: This is another useful application that is available on different platforms. It provides details about the field of radiology. All the progress, developments with regard to the diseases cure, the operations, and medical advancements is noted and through a regular update the clients and professionals are updated. Though this particular application is specifically useful for the one specialized field of doctors, yet in its specialty it allows greater details about all the updates and developments that are taking place. Micro Medex: This application provides a monograph about various medicines. It offers numerous options such as toxicology of drugs which makes it sought after by medical experts. Drop box: Drop box itself is a cloud computing technology enabled application which allows large amount of storage facilitation on different platforms. Their compatibility with Apple Inc and its numerous devices makes it more suitable for usage in the health care sector. Drop box finds number of applications and it may be used for entertainment, official work or any other associated task. Health care is one of those fields that gains direct benefit from it. The advantage of drop box is the elimination of dependency upon portable flash drive that would be needed to be carried to all kinds of places. This application can be used for storing technical medical information. This application is also useful for the medical professionals. Drop box provides number of additional features which may not be present in other applications. One of these features is that of pictures storing. Other advantages of this application include the quick access to this application either from computer or the Apple phone or the tablet( I –Pad). Hence this makes it more suitable than few other applications that are not directly available for all the devices of Apple Inc. Video storing is also facilitated by the Drop box application. Lose It: This is another similar application used for benefiting the common users who are health conscious. As the name would imply it is used for the purpose of losing weight. It provides relevant ideas and tips that can come in handy for weight reduction. Through the prescribed diet, timings, meals, their ingredients, calories and all a common user can get to know the amount of calories a particular food contains and how much must be taken in against it. Drug reference: This is another application which may be used by health professionals to????????????????????(expliane plz more details) Medical language translators: This application is useful for converting any medical and biological name into the common industry name for a particular medicine. For example different antibiotics are known by the commercial names that we often ask the pharmacy owners and they give them to us. We often come across the medicines that are named in the medical terminology. This application can come in handy in those situations. It can allow the common man understanding medicine, their nature, their affectivity, and the possible considerations in a better way and can make the overall usage more safe. Epocrates: This application is used for the purpose of referencing details about particular drugs (1). It may be used for the purpose of translation from technical jargon to the lay man language. Medical awareness and education application: other similar applications include “Monthly Prescribing Reference”(2). References: (2) F.D.A’s role: F.D.A being the supervisory and monitory agency of drugs usage, selling and manufacturing. It has a direct role towards regulating the use of such applications introduced for the purpose of medical usage. With every other operating system coming up with the new medical applications, the onus falls directly upon the F.D.A to ensure that these applications are in no way against the health and safety considerations. Each application must have a F.D.A approved license to them to make this field more secure and effective. How can apps change our health care environment? Apps can serve as reminders to notify about the timings of numerous medicines. They can be used to provide a “tip of the day”. This app allows for creating awareness with regard to the numerous amounts of calories patients consume. It can enable the attainment of a balanced diet. It may also allow creating awareness about numerous diseases and their symptoms. The app also provides guidance for a healthy diet, working hours, exercise and many more factors that contribute a healthy environment. Hence these apps can serve in a completely positive way towards the improvement of health care which is often neglected. How can public use it: These apps may be used in cell phones and could be promoted in different operating systems. Collaboration may be formed with the leading operating systems namely Android, Microsoft, Linux and others. Promotional part: Promoting the used of these apps must be done in a successful way by the application designers and operating systems. The audience directed may include: The blood pressure patients Patients with high sugar level Depression patients Other psychological issues Advertising in the right following audience such as patients and physicians is another section that can be targeted for the purpose of successful launching of the apps. For example a certain application may be promoted in regions and age groups where there are diseases such as blood pressure, high sugar level, or other epidemic or old age diseases. This will allow for the successful usage and commercial benefits from the application introduced. Making sure that the right areas are targeted and clear awareness is spread through it. Clearly defining the technical and non technical nature of applications: The scope of medical related applications may fall in either a technical or non- technical domain. The technical domain can be used by health professionals while the non- technical applications may be brought into used by people who are not in the medical field. Guidelines: Guidelines are important for the usage and promotion of medical tips and applications. They must be officially approved state entities. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an example of an agency that deals with technical aspects of drug applications. Drug control agencies prescribes rules and regulations for drugs promotion practices. Risk determination: The FDA must clearly define the risks that may be included with the promotion, or usage of any drug that is prescribed by a given application and if there is anything in a given application that runs contrary to the health and safety. Drug agencies must promotion safe usage over the electronic medium. The Federal Drug and Cosmetic Act ensures transparency of the services and applications that are being offered. Conclusion: Out of the many applications that are present in the market and for common users application, a couple thousand to a few hundred may be present that work and serve in the field of health care. The number may be increased and could help improve the health care. References: 1-Chen, Brian X. Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In. Da Capo Press, 2011. 2-Imedicalapps. The 20 best free iPhone medical apps for healthcare professionals, edition 3. 19 June 2013. 8 October 2013 . 3-Krouse, Alex. "IPADS, IPHONES, ANDROIDS, AND SMARTPHONES : FDA REGULATION OF MOBILE PHONE APPLICATIONS AS." REGULATIVE. 2008. Read More