Practicing Medicine in a Mobile Powered World
Tags: mobile, medine, Epocrates, point of care
Apple changed the world when they launched the iPod. When the iPhone came out, a new standard for smart phones was set, healthcare apps appeared, and the devices were quickly adopted by physicians (here is a great list of apps for physicians and medical students). So, given Apple's track record,could the Apple iPad help revolutionize healthcare? It may be wishful thinking, but I believe mobile technology has and will continue to change the way medicine is practiced.
64% of U.S. physicians own smartphones and this number is expected to increase to 81% by 2012, according to Manhattan Research. There are some significant advantages to today's mobile platforms, and for many physicians, our mobile device has become essential to our practice. Consider a typical patient encounter…
A 66 year old patient of mine comes to the office with symptoms of depression. She has a complicated medical history with heart failure, atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol (believe it or not, there is nothing rare about this type of patient, they make up 10-20% of a typical panel and a much larger portion of the medicare population.) Here she is, with a relatively straightforward problem (depression), confounded by multiple medical issues and the host of medications that come with them. In addition to the seven (7) medications she is currently taking, I need to add an antidepressant to treat the mood. Yet, with all of these medications I am concerned about drug-drug interactions and wonder if there is an optimal drug to use. Today, I use Epocrates on my iPhone to see that there are a few I want to avoid. In less than 2 minutes I figure out the best option with the least potential interactions – 10 years ago I had to check multiple sources for the same information – a process that took me 10-20 minutes. With the time I save, I can move on to help another patient.
Health 2.0 2009, San Francisco, Day 1: A Summary
Tags: point of care, Health 2.0, telemedicine, EMR
There are some underlying themes at Health 2.0 this year that are quite different than last year. While 2008 was all about mobilizing for change and encouraging new ideas, this year seems to be focused on incenting people to adopt all the new technologies that have been built.
Aneesh Chopra kicked off the conference with a great talk on his experience with HIT in Virginia and how how he believes that innovation in the Health 2.0 space is critical to controlling costs and improving care.
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