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5 best smartphone advances for doctors in the past 5 years

This post is sponsored by Sprint and is the fifth article in a 12-part series […]

This post is sponsored by Sprint and is the fifth article in a 12-part series on mobilizing healthcare for improved communication.

The iPhone is only seven years old, but it’s tough to remember life w
ithout it. In the years since the iPhone’s 2007 release, the smartphone has become ubiquitous. Today, 58 percent of Americans own a smartphone.1

In the past five years, there’s been an explosion of smartphone advances, from Google Voice to Apple Pay and more. There are apps to locate friends, write your grocery list and count calories.

These smartphone advances have reached into the medical sector as well. Doctors use digital devices to review research, write prescriptions and text colleagues. Here are the five best smartphone advances for doctors in the past five years:

  1. Secure texting

Texting protected health information using unencrypted technology, such as SMS, is a HIPAA violation, and can carry a steep penalty.1 But medical providers do it every day because it’s so simple – and they’d rather risk a HIPAA violation than patient safety, said Adam Maguire, director of sales support for Mobile Heartbeat, which provides smartphone applications for improving clinical workflow and team communications.2

Within the past five years, however, it’s become possible for doctors to text each other, and other healthcare providers, in a way that’s both secure and HIPAA compliant, Maguire said.2 That’s a big change for the better.

  1. Technical apps

There are countless new technical smartphone applications designed to make doctors’ work lives easier, Maguire said.2 One example is AirStrip, an app that produces real-time patient information, such as a fetal heartbeat, on an iPhone.2

  1. Clinical apps

More clinical products have also hit the smartphone market, Maguire said.2 One such app alerts clinicians when patients who are at risk of falling have exited their hospital beds.2 Clinical apps like this seek to impact workflow, he said, giving doctors immediate access to important data – and liberating them from having to walk back to a computer to get it.2

  1. Caregiver directory

Physicians have no real control over how they communicate – and that makes communication with each other one of their toughest tasks.1 That’s what a CMIO at a large health facility told Jamie Brasseal, Mobile Heartbeat’s vice president of sales and marketing.3 What’s more, he said, determining who to communicate with is sometimes more difficult than actually reaching them.3

One recent advancement that’s unique to the smartphone is the ability to create a patient-specific caregiver directory, Brasseal said.3 This means providers could communicate with each other in a way that’s specific to an individual patient.3 With a smartphone, they could figure out who to communicate with – and make that communication – in just a few clicks.3

  1. Mobile EMRs

When was the last time you were waiting in line at the grocery store and didn’t see someone gazing at his smartphone? We use smartphones every day, Brasseal said, so they’re less intrusive for doctors to use in medical practice.3 Now, smartphones have made electronic health records mobile.3 Doctors can pull up electronic health records in the palm of their hands – and avoid a trip back to the computer.3

This post is sponsored by Sprint and is the fifth article in a 12-part series on mobilizing healthcare for improved communication.

Read the first four articles in this series:

The value of communication coordination among the care team

What are the best ways to handle care transitions?

The communication pitfalls of multidisciplinary approaches to treating patients

 The five worst things about being a doctor (from a tech perspective)

                                                                                                                                     

1. Pew Internet Project’s Health Fact Sheet, http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/health-fact-sheet/, March 11, 2015.

2. Adam Maguire granted permission for all of his direct quotes and indirect quotes to be used in this article. Interview date: Feb. 5, 2015.

3. Jamie Brasseal granted permission for all of his direct quotes and indirect quotes to be used in this article. Interview date: Feb. 5, 2015.

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