Tag: mobile health trends

Mhealth technology trends

Consumers in growing numbers are tying their healthcare to internet and mobile devices, bring mhealth and mobile commerce closer and closer together. More often than not, patients have already looked up their symptoms online long before they land in a waiting room or even an emergency room.

Google it first

Google, Bing, and other searches are fast becoming part of medical care for patients. Looking online at sites like WebMD is a lot faster than making an appointment and sitting in a waiting room for an hour waiting to see a real doctor. A study by DC Interactive Group and Demi & Cooper Advertising surveyed 18-24 year-olds about healthcare information. A whopping 90% stated that they believe in information found on web sites and through social media about medical conditions.

Anyone with a computer can post medical advice online, which is hugely dangerous, but there are credible sites out there. WebMD is one of them. Some have real doctors and nurses answering health care concerns for users, some on a paid basis. Other than information about symptoms and what they may mean, users also post reviews of doctors and medical institutions online, all available for anyone searching to find and read.

mhealth and mobile commerce

Doctors and medical facilities have a decent presence on social media. More than half of doctors surveyed believe that this actually helps to improve patient care. The downfall is that doctors have privacy laws that they must follow so they must be careful about how they address concerns and questions on social media. In a way, this can mean revenue through mobile means – mhealth mobile commerce – but can also be very limiting about how specifics are addressed.

Most doctors and nurses would agree that going on the internet to get medical advice is not the best option. An in-person visit is always essential, especially when a condition could be serious. However, some medical advice online can be useful and some mobile commerce tools can also help save likes. Apps that record when a patient takes medication or emails caretakers when medication has been skipped can go a long ways towards saving lives and upgrading quality of life for patients.

Healthcare patients forget to take medication more often than doctors would like, causing unnecessary health complications for many. Mobile health or mhealth is a fast growing market that works with an app that monitors medications to help save lives.

Medisafe Project

Medisafe is not a household name but it may be more well-known soon. This project was created to increase rates of medication intake for those given prescriptions by doctors. With use of the mhealth technology by Medisafe, medication adherence rates have gone up to 81% globally. Statins, used to control cholesterol, have seen adherence rates of almost 85%.

The WHO or World Health Organization only projects a global rate of 50% of medications being taken on time each time. This puts the rate of Medisafe up a full thirty one percent higher. These rates bode well for not only the consumers who benefit from the medications, but also for healthcare costs in the long run as well as the bottom lines of many of the top pharmaceutical companies who sell the drugs.

How it works

The remote patient monitoring or mhealth provided by Medisafe helps reduce costs and eliminates unnecessary follow-ups. The project began in November in 2012. The pillbox app syncs up to a users cloud to report that the user indicated that they have taken the required medication. If they fail to report this, a message is sent out to caretakers and family members who can then make sure the medications are taken. It also serves as a reminder service for those that routinely forget to take medications, which is a very common occurrence.

The project CEO of Medisafe, Omri Shor, said, “Medication adherence is a persistent and elusive problem, interrupting patients’ well-being, costing health providers and insurers billions annually and causing preventable deaths.” He went on to suggest that mhealth like Medisafe is a breakthrough that can greatly cut down on the unwanted results of medication avoidance or simply forgetting.

About project Medisafe

Medisafe is the first mobile app that is a cloud-synced app to help aid in preventing medication related emergencies by giving family members and caregivers real time information about medication intake. Information gathered can be used by pharmaceutical companies to help them understand patient habits with taking or forgetting medications.