Connected Health aims to maximize healthcare resources and provide increased, flexible opportunities for consumers to engage with clinicians and better self-manage their care. The model uses technology to deliver patient care outside of the hospital or doctor’s office.
Recent data collected by Pew Internet: Americans and their Gadgets suggest that 86% of U.S. residents own a mobile phone and this number is as high as 96% among Americans aged 18 to 29 years. And, according to a recent survey of 2,041 physicians by Manhattan Research, Albany Medical Center, an estimated 81% of physicians are using smartphones in 2011 (up from 72% in 2010).
Tech-savvy physicians have long been fans of mobile technology, even before it became as user-friendly as it is today. Many physicians adopted the Palm Pilot when it was the new device on the market. The BlackBerry was the first smartphone to reach widespread adoption rates in healthcare, with hospitals buying them in bulk and giving them to physicians. But the mobile devices available today have something to offer even the least tech-savvy physicians, mainly ease of use, which is why the market penetration has gone so deep, according to data from Albany Medical Center, which supports a growing trend of physicians using iPads.
Increasingly, doctors practicing in the U.S. are also putting aside pen and paper and sending prescriptions to pharmacies electronically, prompted by some $27 billion in government funds aimed at quickening the switch to electronic medical records. There are now 200,000 doctors using e-prescribing, or roughly one in three office-based doctors. In Massachusetts, one in three prescriptions is now written electronically, and 57% of doctors are sending prescriptions electronically with more doctors nationwide expected to switch to electronic prescriptions – which promises to help prevent medical errors caused by poor handwriting and harmful drug interactions.
Recently, the American Medical Association launched a complete cloud-based platform, through Amagine that will allow physicians to access clinical tools with a single sign-on to a Web-based platform.
Mobile and wireless technologies have become a routine part of care coordination with hospitals and doctors receiving and transmitting medical literature, prescriptions, consults with colleagues and more – creating connections that matter.
