Mobile-Health (Medical Applications)
As it can be seen smartphones are an undividable part of today’s world, especially in developed countries. As a result of this phenomenon, cell phones, tablet computers, and other wireless devices all play a role in shaping m-Health. Question is what exactly m-Health do? The answer is m-Health covers our health life from all communication between patients and physicians (back to 1984 SMS) to measure our heart rate or even count our steps in dietary applications (Today). In other words, Mobile health is the use of smartphone applications for medical purposes, including diagnosis, treatment, or support of general health and well-being.
Some apps with diagnose function, allow users who have diabetes to tracks insulin doses and send alerts for abnormally high or low blood sugar levels or some others allow patients to use their smartphones to record electrocardiograms, and transmit results to their cardiologists for further diagnosis. Some applications with health-management purposes like medication reminders and symptom checkers have a role in health improvement. The popular RunKeeper app, which makes use of a smartphone’s GPS to track its users’ running speed, measures their weight, and uses wristbands that keep record of daily activity. All of this data is then pulled together into an easy-to-read graph that offers a more complete picture of users’ health. According to “How to set up your emergency Medical ID with iOS 8's new Health app” by Hughes (2014), in emergency situations, Medical ID which is in iOS 8 for IPhone tries to decrease wrong diagnosis or any other risks in emergency time. Medical ID is a digital medical ID that allows users to submit health info like medical conditions, any allergies, reaction and medication or blood type, weight and height;
and personal info, name, date of birth, and contact emergencies.
The technology could also be a broad help to people who struggle with long-term problems, such as hypertension, by allowing them to track their progress over time and potentially address issues before they become too serious.
Mone (2014) found “Today we have a sick care system, not a wellness system,” says Stephen Intille, a computer scientist in the Personal Health Informatics group at Northeastern University in Boston, MA (p.18). He is trying to say, this sort of technology could change health care system toward a fundamental shift in the way patients communicate with their doctors. Instead of seeing physicians only when something goes wrong,
patients using these apps and devices could work together with their providers to live healthier lives and reduce the frequency of sick visits.
Palliative care comes to a new level of management by communication between patient, palliative doctor, caregiver and local family physician by applications like WhatsApp messenger, which allows the user to share clinical images, video, photo of reports and medication in a cheaper and more accessible way compared to teleconferencing systems. This technology will also be beneficial for the patients lacking access to medical services due to both debilitating medical condition and geographic isolation (Dhiliwal, Salins, 2015).