Medical Apps: The Future of iPhone and Medical Technology

03 Mar Medical Apps: The Future of iPhone and Medical Technology

Imagine a future where doctors can pull out an iPad, click into a medical app, and show patients the intricacies of their most recent CT scans — just a few short minutes after the results become available. In many respects, that future is now. Iphone and medical technologies have merged in an important way over the past few years, and this development requires our professional attention — only partially because it is an incredibly exciting evolution in healthcare.

Here, we’ll discuss the ways the Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit medical institution with campuses across the nation, exemplifies the changes currently taking place in mobile healthcare technology — and what it means for your practice. Read on!

Medical apps can synthesize multiple channels into one, easy-to-use system. 

The Mayo Clinic uses Synthesis Mobile on its iOS devices in order to avoid the increasingly common issue physicians are facing in healthcare offices: ceaselessly logging into different windows in order to access multiple layers of patient information. If you’re working from an old operating system, your staff has probably encountered this issue before — log-ins after log-ins can only serve to add more time (and frustration) to the limited time medical professionals have in the exam room.

Instead of feeling like they are spending more time interacting with computers than patients, the right medical app can compile all the necessary information your staff needs to interact with patients into one, easy-to-use system that only requires one log-in across multiple platforms. Synthesis Mobile is just one example, but its importance is all the same; by synchronizing your practice’s data, efficiency — and productivity — can only increase alongside patient satisfaction.

Medical apps allows patients to take an active role in their healthcare plans. 

Not only can medical apps improve workflow among medical staff, but also apps like Patient can give your clients a chance to securely access their own medical records online. As used by the Mayo Clinic, the app allows patients to view their history, lab results, and even correspond with departmental staff. This is significant because it gives individuals an element of control over their health information, thereby demystifying the question of what occurs behind closed lab doors — and providing greater opportunities for pointed, specific questions about their treatment plans.

Furthermore, Ask Mayo Expert connects common queries from patients to relevant, necessary information from Mayo experts. In this way, patients can get answers to their questions from their iPhones and iPads, and can also be directed to speak with a specific individual when their question is best reserved for an in-person appointment. Even if this option seems outside the scope of your personal practice’s capabilities, the central idea is the same — patients want to connect with information and answers to their questions as they come up.

So, if a medical question-and-answer medical app seems outside your available resources, consider bringing the idea into any weekly or monthly newsletters your practice disseminates to subscribers. This can carry over the idea of frequently asked questions into a forum that is content-specific, and rotates on a consistent enough basis for patients to submit their more pressing questions.

The intersection between iPhones and medical technology will only increase.

Back in 2010, the Guardian reported on the proliferation of a stethoscope app for iPhone being used by doctors in remote areas. In 2011, researchers at the University of California, Davis developed an inexpensive add-on lens and app to convert an iPhone 4 into a medical imaging and chemical-detection device (seriously!). What does it all mean? The growth of medical apps — both in brick-and-mortar offices and out in remote fields — will only increase, which means that now is as exciting a time as ever to be integrating these systems with your practice.

Learn more by speaking with the marketing professionals at the HealthCare Marketing Group today!