The Benefits Of Using Medical Apps For Patients

Patients should consider using health mobile apps because they provide many different helpful uses. These have many features that can benefit at-home clients with tracking and health suggestions, have the potential to aid in the advancement of professional skills from on-app training and provides the convenience of access anytime. All sorts of health assisting applications are new in the mobile app stores, some of which might be very useful for all different users. Some features include potential health diagnoses, mental health and fitness monitoring, menstrual calendars and workout suggestions.

Apps such as WebMD help identify possible conditions that relate to the patients’ age, gender, and symptoms that are to be filled out when opening the program, and can offer at-home treatment methods. Keeping a watch on mental health is very important, which is another feature that can be exercised by daily mood entries, sleep patterns, activity for the day and therapeutic support. Menstrual tracking helps women identify the patterns of their cycle, get information on their fertility days, and watch medications. Exercise motivation can be improved on with workout prompts, dietary and fitness goals and new training routines. With new coming technology and medical training development, doctors and medical students can learn how to better identify medications, medical conditions, and answer clinical. Patients can utilize this to contribute and collaborate among medical professionals to share knowledge, discuss rare conditions, and bounce ideas off each other. Overseeing and approving the sales of medical apps are controlled by the medical bureau of Health Canada, who clarified the evaluating process in risk-based strategies; not requiring medical device license on apps that show to be low-risk and are produced by a licensed company (Labos, 2016, para 1). The research involved can range from minor injuries to major that may be too in-depth for first-year students. Medical apps can also help both patients and professionals to keep an eye on dietary habits and learn how to get on the right track with the best eating habits for their situation.

These programs are very convenient and in most cases do not require data or internet access to use once downloaded. Any phone or other mobile devices can easily download and will able to be of use anytime anywhere. “Can your smartphone save you a trip to the doctor’s office or to the ER? That is the premise of the $4-billion mobile health industry, with over 165,000 health apps available to download onto your phone to diagnose, manage and treat medical problems” (Labos, 2016, para 1). Waiting times in the emergency rooms have been significantly increasing over the years and the majority of the issue is coming from minor injuries that do not require doctors care and can be dealt with at home with the info provided by the apps. Hospital waiting times can be nearly cut in half if more patients were to start using these programs.