Keeping abreast with the conversations in the world of mobile applications and developments, mHealth would not be a new term to us. mHealth is a term used for practice of public healthcare and medicine supported by mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) with apps that help patients track, engage in, or analyze their health.
6 Other mHealth Technologies
- Patient monitoring devices
- MP3 players for mLearning
- Microcomputers
- Data collection software
- Mobile Operating System Technology
- Mobile applications
How to do it
- Assess needs: Depending on a feedback or queries asked by patients , you can picture the kind of needs prevalent. If Diabetes makes up your major patient load who look for help managing their diet, exercise, or medications OR If you are trying to communicate with you ? Think of how mHealth solutions could help bring out the best for your practice. So let patients be your guide on where to start.
- Get it custom made: Based on your requirements and patients needs you can get a custom made mhealth app. Do your indepth surveying of available apps before using , creating or suggesting any apps to your patients to ensure they’re high-quality.
How mHealth Can Help?
With multiple options available medical practices are attempting many practices to explore how mobile devices might help them . mHealth solutions helps patients monitor their health conditions throughout the day and share the relevant data with their physician.Numerous ways it can help are:
• Collection of community and clinical health data
• Delivery of healthcare information to practitioners, researchers and patients
• Improved Quality of Life.
• Real-time monitoring of patient vital signs
• Better Patient Engagement
A mHealth tool can help remind patients to monitor aspects of their health, like diet, weight, blood pressure, sleep, and medication. Mobile apps empower patients and give responsibility for their own health. Some apps can even be designed to directly contact their physican in case of a query /emergency wherein the doctor would be notified too improving engagement. Thus it increases accessibility and allows patients to reach out with quick questions.
With patient monitoring and patient engagement, physicians can make better, more cost-efficient recommendations for patient treatment.A survey conducted by Research Now Group found that almost 96% of mHealth users believe that these apps will improve their quality of life.
Integrating mHealth into your practice may be extra work, but these undeniable benefits could ensure better outcomes for both you and your patients.
Why Practice Social Distancing?
Amidst this lockdown, many are still asking the question about “Social Distancing”. As per the scientists, finding the cure or medicine for COVID-19 it may take about 12-18 months to find it. Hence. To prevent the spreading of this virus social distancing is the most effective way to do it.
Let's start by explaining what is social distancing, it is a conscious and deliberate choice of maintaining the distance of six feet from the people around us, to prevent the spreading of COVID-19.
To understand better the impact of it, here is a small visual to explain how the virus will spread if social distancing is not paid attention.
Social distancing is so effective right now that as an individual we all are contributing in the prevention of spreading this deadly virus.
There is another major concern that is coming into the picture with the rapid increase in the coronavirus patients. Hospitals around the world do not have enough resources to tackle this pandemic, there are limited numbers of healthcare facility in all the countries around the world.
The coronavirus outbreak in Italy has shown, the faster rate of the population getting infected by it and to tackle with it, there are not enough medical resources like hospital beds, ventilators and doctors. This will be challenging for the healthcare to save lives leading to exponential rise in number of deaths.
Hence, social distancing is the most effective way to "flatten the curve" or reduce the spread of this coronavirus.
What does flattening the curve means?
The researchers have projected a graph to understand the impact of the spreading of coronavirus against the number of hospital beds. Though this is a theoretical graph, it does show how quickly the capacity of healthcare can come crashing down which can make COVID-19 an epidemic, hard to deal with.
This curve indicates, if the same number of people are getting at a slower rate over a longer period of time, then it reduces the pressure on the healthcare system and making it easier to treat everyone, hence, a lesser number of deaths.
Therefore, just by taking small measures individually, like maintaining social distance, washing hands frequently, avoid going out in crowded places, and spend maximum time inside the house. We all can contribute a collective to fight against this deadly coronavirus.