Healthcare and smartphones are the two most important elements of life. The distance or lack of communication between doctors and patients, normal queries about basic health problems, and more needed a solution that could be integrated into our very own Smartphone. Apps in healthcare are the solution to a lot of emerging problems.
What is an app in healthcare?
An app in healthcare is the package of healthcare services like appointment booking, electronic prescription, and telemedicine combines in an application mostly in the mobile platform.
There are mainly two types of health apps:
- Supervised by Healthcare Professionals
- Basic health queries and fitness apps
Apps Supervised by Healthcare professionals
These apps are more internally connected with healthcare professionals. One can schedule an appointment with a doctor, can communicate directly with a doctor, and upload e-prescription in the app for future care and many more. Patients want a somewhat faster answer from their doctors, which gets easier by the use of this type of healthcare apps.
Basic Health Queries and Fitness Apps
One of the most problematic facts about almost every healthcare system in any country is the doctor to patient ratio which is quite less in every country, pretty far from the ideal ratio.
Tiny health problems and queries along with fitness, exercise, calorie burn, nutritious food consumptions, and all these small recommendations now can easily be gained through the apps available in the play store.
How are mobile applications used in healthcare?
There are several types of use of the mobile application in healthcare. Some uses of mobile applications in healthcare are
- Appointment Scheduling
- Diagnosis Assistance
- Drug identification and information
- Social networking for healthcare professionals
- Easy Communication with patients
- Remote Health Monitoring
- Electronic Health Record
Mobile applications in healthcare can be used pretty effectively. A more electronic means of healthcare facilities widens and bolster the relationship among patients and doctors by a greater means of communication.
How many healthcare apps are there?
According to Statista, there are 43285 Healthcare Apps available in the play store in 2020.
More than 40k healthcare apps alone in the Play-store tells us that, not just tech-savvy patients but also normal people seeking Play-store for their health support and recommendations.
Are health apps effective?
The dependence over healthcare apps and the significantly increasing number of new healthcare apps indicates a positive outcome.
Healthcare apps have really been useful, as services like electronic prescriptions, diagnosis assistance, drug identifications, makes it much easier for professionals to concentrate more on the core treatment of patients. And minimize the error rates of drug suggestions as immense pressure of handling a huge number of patients often lead to some medication suggestions errors.
For consumers and normal peoples, the effectiveness is quite high as so many features like a workout; nutritious food consumption, cardio exercise, calorie burn, high-fat foods, and much other Reliable information can easily be gained and utilized.
Apps for healthcare professional
As it has already been mentioned that, healthcare apps are mainly based on two types of service; one for healthcare professionals and one for consumers or patients.
Healthcare apps can be very beneficial for healthcare professionals as in certain time to time, even doctors could use some specific helpful suggestions regarding medicine recommendations and test report analysis and others.
Some helpful apps for healthcare professionals are
Medscape
Medscape has gained plenty of popularity over time as it offers a lot of useful and updated information free of charge. Some of its features
- Immediate Clinical Answers with 8500+ prescriptions, drugs, herbals, supplements to keep you Up to date.
- Latest Medical News and Perspective with FDA approval alert, commentary from experts in the field, breaking clinical trial data, and kinds of stuff.
- Consultations among physicians and medical students, the largest network among related peoples.
And most importantly, the data and information are 100% legit, processed, and delivered from experts and authentic sources.
DynaMed
DynaMed is another very useful app mainly for healthcare professionals. It not FREE, comes with a paid subscription option. DynaMed mainly put importance on publishing clinically-organizing topics, which are continuously being updated and demands a change in the practice, making it more important. Some features are
- Clinicians Practice Point
- Evidence Synopsis
- DynaMed Commentary
- Drug Monograph
- Drug Interaction, etc.
VisualDx
There is often a problem with rare diseases and their diagnostic symptoms as it is difficult to assess the problem. VisualDx comes with the visual-based digital library which contains image and explanation of various disease states along with the rarest one. Some features are
- Diagnosis Search
- Medication Adverse Events
- The Sympticon
- Medical Image library with 32000+ medical images
- Expert Content, etc.
ClotMD
ClotMD plays a role in connecting healthcare professionals and patients more efficiently. The monitoring enables better care for patients as the management of anticoagulation therapy could be tricky and requires consistent monitoring. ClotMD eases things up to a greater extent and improves the patient care service. Some features are
- Customized automated dosage change notification alert
- Easier access to test result and history
- Medication Modification
- Effective and efficient monitoring
- Management of Clinical Data, etc.
3D4Medical
One of the most advanced and innovative applications which offer its users to investigate the complete human anatomy with minute detail in 3D, an advanced 3D platform. It is effective for both medical students and healthcare professionals. It offers a superior perspective of human anatomy that traditional media cannot provide a much clearer sight. Some features are
- Bone Mapping
- Muscle Movement
- Radiology Images
- Augmented Reality, etc.
Healthcare apps for consumers
Well, you can’t really rank the best 5 or 10 apps that are massively helping consumers as there are just too many good applications out there. More than 40k apps are already in healthcare and so many people are using them.
But people tend to like work out apps, nutrition apps, apps that provide information about certain medication and drug details, and some other health-related stuff. Some famous applications are
- First Aid By American Red Cross
- WebMD, This one is like Super Popular both in-app and Website
- Arogya Setu – One of the most downloaded health apps in Playstore, According to Statista
- Samsung Health
- Step Tracker
- Six Pack in 30 Days, etc
To Wrap Things Up
Healthcare has always seen and used some pretty advanced technology in its system although, authorities have been a little reluctant to integrate the automation process in healthcare.
But now, from automated appointment scheduling to chatbots and various other things, technology is pacing its widespread adoption in the healthcare system to modify and improve quality care.