Will an App a Day Keep the Doctor Away? | March Communications

You?ve probably heard of certain smartphone applications, like RunKeeper and LoseIt that are helping users achieve health and fitness goals. Well, this innovation has spawned a new breed of healthcare solutions through prescription-apps, which many medical professionals are using to help their patients deal with chronic ailments like diabetes or heart disease.

For example, Welldoc is leading this charge with its DiabetesManager system, which enables patients to?access the app through their smartphone , cellphone, or desktop. The patient can either enter data manually or link to their glucose monitors to transfer pertinent information to the app, such as diet, blood sugar levels and medication requirements. The app can then provide advice on patient care and even send clinical recommendations to the doctor.

Furthermore, as a subsidiary of the business arm of the Greater New York Hospital Association and a leader in mobile health solutions, Happtique is creating a system that allows doctors to prescribe apps to patients. Happtique uses a healthcare app indexing method designed to be intuitive to industry professionals and patients. It also offers hospitals and other healthcare organizations the ability to create individually branded, secure ?substores? that can support employee and patient mobile technology use.

Will this shift to mobile healthcare make doctors? visits obsolete?

Not exactly. A recent New York Times piece outlines some concerns with these apps, emphasizing that there is no system in place yet to inspect, pay for and oversee the proper use of these applications. While WellDoc serves as a good example of an effective application- the Food and Drug Administration gave the system clearance to operate as a medical device, and to avoid the issue cost (which can be similar to the price of prescription drugs) a few insurance companies have already agreed to the bill for a few patients that have been cleared by doctors to use the app- the app is one in fewer than 10 that has approved by the FDA. And, with any new technological innovating, there are ne?er-do-wells trying to beat the system- many apps violate current medical regulations by making un-trusted medical claims.

I?m very encouraged by these new applications, as long as the top priority for app developers, doctors and patients alike remains optimal quality of care. Though technological innovations often result in shortcuts to keep up with our dynamic lifestyles, this particular scenario, which could sometimes be categorized as ?life or death? leaves no margin for error.

What do you think, will these apps change the way healthcare is delivered, or are they too superficial to handle the serious components of medical care?

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Source: http://www.marchpr.com/blog/2012/08/will-an-app-a-day-keep-the-doctor-away/

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