Kenek O2 is a pulse oximeter that connects to smartphones. Using this device, doctors can place central lines, guide injections, diagnose emergencies quicker and scan pregnant women in remote areas. POCUS is an excellent example of the developing world leading technological innovation. The power and intuitive nature of smartphones encourages innovation. World-leading technology is available at a fraction of the cost, and all are making the most of the opportunity.

In the Tanzanian village of Shirati, Dr.

How Smartphone Technology Is Changing Healthcare In Developing Countries

Buire Changi, chief medical officer, is in charge of a bed hospital. Despite his experience, Dr. Changi may need a second physician to confirm his findings. His patients need to be triaged and some referred to a larger hospital. The decision to seek a second opinion is crucial.

If Dr. Changi chooses to refer the patient, it is an expensive five-hour bus journey to the Mwanza regional hospital.

mHealth: From Smartphones to Smart Systems (HIMSS Book Series) [PDF]

Though the patients may still have an uncomfortable five-hour journey to Mwanza, they are referred with confidence that the journey is worth the discomfort. In the future, smartphone technology could prove vital in dealing with difficult scenarios that may emerge in the developing world. Consider the implication of such technology in a situation similar to the outbreak of Ebola across West Africa in Point-of-care testing can detect the Ebola virus in a single drop of blood.

Virus control could be rapidly restored, and an epidemic is prevented.

Smartphone technology is already widely used in healthcare and has growing recognition across all medical fields. It promotes global interaction, improves care and reduces healthcare costs. If encouraged alongside a wariness of potential dangers, smartphone technology will continue to revolutionize global health and change the world. At last count, there are over apps in dermatology alone. This same technology can be leveraged for telemedicine consults.

Respondents said apps for patient follow-up — especially after hospital discharge — and chronic disease management for diabetes, heart failure and hypertension, were seen as the biggest areas of potential impact on healthcare.

Since the first survey in , diabetes has been considered the chronic disease area with the highest potential growth for mHealth. Today, 70 percent of mHealth practitioners rate diabetes highest in terms of business potential in the next five years. This is followed by apps to help manage obesity 38 percent , hypertension 29 percent , depression 23 percent and chronic heart diseases 16 percent.

Smart Health Technology

Survey respondents said the biggest expected impact of mHealth in the next five years will be on patient follow-up monitoring. About 60 percent of mHealth providers said patient follow-up and monitoring via wearables and mobile app interfaces will be a major driver for patient engagement. About 40 percent said the second most popular use of mHealth will be patients leveraging the technology to quickly find health information about their conditions or managing their health.

Apps are already becoming more connected to sensors to feed in activity, nutrition or biometric data. According to the survey, 70 percent of mHealth practitioners said built-in sensors in smartphones including accelerometers and heart rate measured with the phone's camera will likely be the area with highest market potential, followed by wearable devices 53 percent.

Wearable devices include wristbands, patches or chest belts that transmit the data wirelessly via Bluetooth or a cable to the smartphone. Sensors that plug into a smartphone, including thermometers, blood pressure monitors and glucose monitors, also are expected to become very popular.

Survey respondents said mHealth apps promise to significantly reduce healthcare costs once integrated into the healthcare system. One area where mHealth is expected to have a major impact is reducing readmissions and the length of stay by allowing remote monitoring of patients at home, rather than have them taking up hospital beds. Another area practitioners said apps will have a major impact in reducing healthcare costs is by cutting medication non-compliance through the use of simple pill reminder apps.

As the aging U. Doctors are also expected to see an impact from apps in the next couple years, as 41 percent of mHealth app publishers and decision makers foresee they will treat their patients, schedule appointments or execute diagnostics using mobile devices rather than by conventional means or workstation computers. As the use of mobile devices and smartphones has rapidly proliferated in healthcare, there has been a flood of medical applications apps developed for all facets of medicine.

In an increasingly tech savvy world, people want information to be at their fingertips when and where they need it via their mobile devices. In , the FDA created a tailored approach to apps that supports innovation while protecting consumer safety, and it updated these guidelines in February Unregulated apps include those offering patient education, those that help patients keep track of their health, as well as clinical reference and clinical training.

The FDA said it will concentrate its regulatory efforts only on apps that may impact patient safety or that transform the mobile device into a regulated device, such as accessing software that requires FDA k market approval.

This includes accessing picture archiving and communication systems PACS , or apps that convert the mobile device into a patient diagnostic device, such as an ECG monitor, testing device or ultrasound imaging system. The FDA stated that patients with diabetes already use FDA-cleared smartphone apps to monitor the level of sugar in their blood, and doctors can often use their tablets to read X-rays and perform ultrasounds or electrocardiograms.

The agency said those functions represent just the tip of the iceberg of what it expects to come. The agency created the guidelines to be ready to handle the influx of new apps requiring FDA review. The FDA said mobile apps have the potential to transform healthcare by allowing doctors to diagnose patients with potentially life-threatening conditions outside of traditional healthcare settings.

The FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion meaning it will not enforce requirements under the Federal Drug and Cosmetic Act for the majority of mobile apps, since they only pose minimal risks to consumers.

Short Definition

The agency intends to focus its regulatory oversight on a subset of mobile medical apps that present a greater risk to patients if they do not work as intended. Early hospital mortality prediction using vital signals December Restoring the sense of bladder fullness for spinal cord injury patients December New attacks on RNN based healthcare learning system and their detections December Mind the gaps: Edge-based monitoring for continuous room-level location tracking December Are you smoking?

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