How Mobile Devices Will Play an Increasingly Important Role in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients

by Richard Stokes

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As previously mentioned in my Top 5 Medical Trends for 2012, mobile devices are revolutionizing patient care. In the last few years, more doctors and their patients are turning to medical applications for smartphones and tablets.

For the three month average period ending January 2012, comScore reports that over 100 million U.S. mobile subscribers (101.3 million to be exact) are using smartphones, which is up from 97.9 million in the previous period.

Smartphone users have access to thousands of apps like iTriage, where they can find possible causes, treatments, and nearby medical help for a number of symptoms. The app also stores health records.

The number of users downloading mHealth smartphone applications is expected to nearly double in 2012 compared to last year, with 247 million users, according to medical research specialists Research2Guidance.

Nearly half of the physicians in the United States use tablets, and more than 80 percent of them have smartphones.

Physicians can use features like improved cameras to more easily record the physical symptoms of patients. Mobile devices also have the potential to be used as diagnostic tools because medical imaging will be possible once new apps become available that utilize the upgraded technology. Apps can be used currently to collaborate with other healthcare professionals to make a diagnosis. Voice recognition systems like Siri, the iPhone’s new built-in voice assistant, can be used by healthcare professionals as a dictation device.

If you want to learn more, MobiHealthNews offers a complimentary on-demand webinar, Meaningful Uses for MobileThis webinar focuses on how two of the biggest topics in healthcare today intersect: Meaningful Use and mobile health.

Network 1 Consulting is a 14-year-old, IT Support company in Atlanta, GA.  We become – or augment – the IT department for professional services companies: law firms, medical practices and financial services firms.  Our IT experts can fix computers – but what our clients really value is the industry-specific best practices we bring to their firm.  This is especially important with technology, along with regulations and cyber threats, changing so rapidly.  We take a proactive approach to helping our clients use technology to gain and keep their competitive advantage.

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Richard Stokes: As the Director of Sales for Network 1, Richard identifies “future” clients that can benefit from the support of an experienced, outsourced IT team. He helps clients and prospects find technology solutions they need to achieve better productivity and efficiency so they can focus on making money and growing their businesses.

Network 1 designs, builds and supports the IT you need to run your business more securely, productively and successfully. Whether you want to outsource all of your IT needs to a reliable, responsive, service-oriented company, or need to supplement the work of your internal IT staff, we will carefully evaluate where you are now, discuss where you want to go and implement and support a plan to get you there with as little interruption as possible.

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