M-Health.MD

M-Health is the use of medical information exchanged from a site, or a patient, via a Smartphone, tablet or other electronic devices, to provide or check on a patients’ health status. It includes consultative, diagnostic, and treatment services. Mobile health information technology (m-Health) typically refers to portable devices with the capability to create, store, retrieve, and transmit data in real time between end users for the purpose of improving patient safety and quality of care. The flow of mobile health information is characterized by portable hardware coupled with software applications and patient data that flows across wireless networks. Mobile health enables clinical access to a variety of major software applications central to patient care and subsequently increases clinicians’ reach, mobility, and ease of information access, regardless of location. For example, a clinician might use a mobile device to access a patient electronic health record (EHR), write and transmit prescriptions to a pharmacy, interact with patient treatment plans, communicate public health data, order diagnostic tests, review labs, or access medical references. Data transmission is realized by technologies common in everyday life including blue tooth, cell phone, infra-red, wifi, and wired technologies, all of which operate as part of a network. Mobile devices can be helpful across the health care spectrum-transmitting vital information quickly during an acute public health crisis or being used for on-going needs such as education and training. When utilized for patient care, mobile devices are credited with improving patient safety by eliminating errors commonly associated with paper-based medical records and enhancing the continuity of care. In addition to improved patient outcomes, work flow and administrative efficiencies from the use of mobile devices can produce cost savings for the user or user organization.