Tag: mobile technology

A recent Merck survey found that smartphones and tablets are altering the way healthcare is provided.

A new survey by Merck Manuals showed that mobile health technology is changing the game. These mobile digital resources are helping doctors and patients in the way that care is provided. The survey revealed that doctors feel confident in their ability to keep up with digital and mobile technology.

The physician participants in the survey said they were ready for the changes being made in information tech.

The main focus of healthcare has been moving toward value and efficiency. In this effort, mobile health technology has considerable potential for doctors. They feel as though they are properly equipped to keep up with this tech shift.

The survey involved the participation of 220 physicians. It was held at a recent medical conference at which the vast majority of participants said that mobile technology such as smartphones in their offices has changed the way visits occur. This applies both in the case of their own smartphones and those brought by their patients.

More than 4 out of 5 doctors feel mobile health technology has changed the dynamic in their offices.

Among the respondents, 81 percent said that being able to obtain medical information over mobile devices has caused multiple changes in their offices. That said, physicians feel they are prepared for what is to come. They feel tech savvy enough to be able to use the devices and apply them effectively to their patient interactions.

Among those who feel prepared for the tech shift – 75 percent of the respondents – two out of three say they use mobile technology a minimum of ten times per day to access medical information. They feel this tech helps them to keep up with patient interaction needs and demands for time.

Eighty percent of the doctors who use mobile health technology devices at work use information they learn from apps and online information databases. They are using this information to provide themselves with more detailed information when making a diagnosis or recommending a patient treatment plan. Another two out of every three are keeping themselves up to date with medical news over mobile devices.

Scientists have come up with a new technology that may make dropping your smartphone far less upsetting.

Scientists in the United Kingdom have announced that they have come up with a technology for an unbreakable phone screen. The tech involves the use of a special form of electrode. It would be possible to use it in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, or even in larger electronics such as TVs.

The team of scientists has predicted that the unbreakable screens could be available as soon as 2018.

The electrode for the unbreakable phone screen technology conducts electricity throughout the glass. A traditional form of electrode is made of indium tin oxide (ITO), which is an expensive type of metal. In fact, it is prohibitively expensive and has stopped that method from being used for more durable mobile phone screens until now. However, the UK scientist have made a new type of electrode by mixing graphene and silver nanowires.

These two materials were the key to being able to create the unbreakable phone screen display.

The silver nanowires are exceptionally tiny, at 1/10,000 the width of a human hair. And yet, they’re still much larger than graphene. The thinness of these materials has made it possible for an exceptionally flexible conductor which is far more resistant to breaking and cracking than the current standard glass screens.

When taking into consideration the number of people who break their smartphone screens, this is very good news. After all, a cracked screen isn’t just an inconvenience. In fact, inconvenience is only the beginning. Touchscreens as a standard on nearly all smartphones have meant that cracked screens can limit the use of the device or can render it unusable.

The unbreakable phone screen technology was created by a team of University of Sussex physicists who were working with an Oxford microelectrics firm. They developed these unique hybrid electrodes and published their findings in the Nanoscale journal. According to that publication, this is also an important discovery because the graphene and silver nanowire combination is actually better at conducting electricity than the older electrodes made out of the expensive ITO metal.