Today people can gain seamless access to the shared data, resources, and infrastructural facilities through cloud computing.
Organizations can use the network to provide on-demand services and perform tasks that meet evolving requirements and benchmarks. All of this is plausible in the health care setting thanks to mHealth care.
A concept of Health care, known as Mobile Health or mHealth, is the practice of providing medical and public health services through the use and reinforcement of mobile devices.
One of the top three industries to accelerate the growth of mobile devices is the health and medical industry.
These mobile applications mainly support Healthcare with the following Services :
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Mobile telemedicine is a type of primary care that is used for remote consultation processes.
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Medical records storage and exchange
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Individualized vitals monitoring, now enhanced by interconnectedness with wearable devices such as IoT.
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Location-based or GPS-incorporated medical services ensure the prompt and timely delivery of information that is significant and required.
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Management and response to emergencies
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Accessibility to health information is widely available.
Mobile health can strengthen the overall healthcare system by increasing efficiency, information exchange, cost-effectiveness, and service quality.
To comprehend the evolution of mHealth in Connected Healthcare, we must first investigate how mHealth strategies are being used in public health initiatives to these prioritized population groups, as mobile phone capabilities include texting, smartphone applications, access to the internet, emails, video services, media platforms, photo sharing, and more.
According to recent statistics, over 80% of American citizens own mobile phones, and more than 40% own smartphones, with the latter percentage expected to rise to more than 80% within the next decade, and approximately 83 percent of mobile phones are always turned on and with the user.
However, the rapid adoption of smartphones has flooded the market with applications and web-based systems designed specifically for health and wellness.
There are many healthcare apps available for both consumers and healthcare professionals and apps with interactive tools.
Such apps can assist people in sticking to diets, tracking fitness goals, and providing nutrition, diet, and healthy living recommendations.
The capabilities of health and wellness apps and systems vary greatly, and they can be broadly classified into six groups.
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Lifestyle apps focus on helping people make positive changes in their health by monitoring their improvements in health-related tasks such as diet, weight loss, or exercise programs. These apps are often used without the supervision of a clinician. People with and without chronic conditions can use these apps.
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Patient-centered apps assist people in managing chronic medical conditions by allowing them to self-identify early symptoms and handle and stay true to therapy. Since, through such apps, one cannot interact directly with a healthcare professional, it needs to be used with extreme care.
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Clinician-oriented apps help clinicians assess patients by providing guidelines or practical information, healthcare strategic thinking tools, or slide rules. These apps are intended for clinicians to use alone or evaluate patients, not for “patient-only” use.
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Disease management systems are online platforms that assist practitioners in monitoring patients with chronic illnesses and using desktop machines. These systems, which may incorporate decision support tools, can sometimes be integrated into electronic medical records, practice management systems, and pharmacies.
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Traditional telehealth systems make use of electronic communications to provide and produce content and data over long distances. They generally include interfaces for both the patient and the provider and a specialized external device, such as home-based blood pressure or heart rate monitor, and support communication via a desktop or laptop computer but not a mobile device, such as a smartphone. They, like disease management systems, necessitate clinician supervision.
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mHealth systems work in the same way as traditional telehealth applications, but they use smartphones or tablets instead of computers. Individuals could use these platforms in their urban ecosystems and when they have cellular or wireless connectivity, allowing information to be collected, recorded, and transferred.
CONCLUSION:
The Evolution of Mobile Healthcare applications has altered how we think about providing care to chronically ill patients and how people manage their health and fitness. In general, these platforms have shown promise to improve the quality of health care delivery, patient satisfaction, self-care routine, patient engagement, and behavioral interventions.
Besides this, technology solutions need to keep evolving. Specific requirements are essential to meet the needs of the reintegration practitioner, where health workers will need to lend their expertise to teams developing mHealth systems.
However, there are significant knowledge gaps regarding the long-term effects, acceptability, costs, and risks of such interventions, and there is still much work to be done.
