Coming soon to a hospital near you: nurses with mobile technology. And for patients at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and Sarasota Memorial Hospital smartphones are already in use. In Minnesota, the phones have created a direct line between patients and nurses. Prior to adopting the technology, patients would ring their call button which someone at the nurse's station would answer. Then the patient request would be relayed to their specific nurse via pager. With this method, patients could be waiting upwards of 10 minutes for a response. With the new system, patient requests are answered almost instantaneously. For more information, click here.
Photo Credit: Ricky Romero
A recent report issued by Manhattan Research found that 64% of doctors are using smartphones - iPhones, Blackberrys, Treos or other hand-held devices which provide wireless Internet access and mobile applications. This percentage is more than double what it was just eight years ago. Physicians are using smart phones to access drug and clinical references as well as utilize tools such as dosage calculators.
Industry leaders envision a future of technology-driven healthcare with smartphones as an integral component. "Primarily, the work flow you are going to enter into as a provider at the point of care, in front of the patient, will be done on a device like the iPhone. [A] desktop, laptop, keyboard is pretty much not going to work if you want to do things quickly and do things at the point of care," said Tom Giannulli, MD in an interview on amednews.com. Giannulli is an internist in California who developed the first stand-alone Electronic Medical Record for the iPhone which launched in September 2008. To read more about how mobile technology is being used in healthcare, continue here.
Photo Credit: Christopher Chan