9 Mobile Health Apps that Benefit Healthcare Professionals

March 6, 2019

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Healthcare professional holding smartphone According to the 2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, 90 percent of healthcare professionals use mobile devices to engage with patients. Medical applications for mobile devices have made a major impact on healthcare for professionals and patients. As the market for mobile apps continues to grow, healthcare professionals should stay aware of new tools that can be used as resources and to improve their operations.

1. Doximity

Doximity is a social networking app for healthcare professionals similar to LinkedIn, allowing users to manage their careers and stay in contact with colleagues and other professionals. The app utilizes a secure platform that is in compliance with HIPAA guidelines and enables physicians across multiple disciplines and specialties to test and collaborate on difficult cases and identify experts for patient referrals. It is currently the largest professional healthcare network with over 70 percent of physicians as members.

2. uMoove

This mobile app utilizes leading face and eye-tracking technology with medical applications, such as in-house medical diagnostic and therapeutic applications for neurological diseases. Eye-tracking technology has been used for research in the analysis of eye movement for diagnosing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, hyperactivity disorder, and autism. This tool can be beneficial in boosting the accuracy of a healthcare organization’s diagnostic efforts to provide early and effective care.

3. iCouch

The HIPAA-compliant videoconferencing app iCouch connects mental health professionals with patients online so that people who need treatment can receive it from qualified professionals from anywhere in the world. It also aids in preventing missed appointments and rescheduling; reaching patients via mobile video technology. Mental health is a section of healthcare that suffers from a lack of providers and a stigma that keeps people from seeking help. The app’s other features provide scheduling, reminders, billing, and payment assistance.

4. EASE

The Electronic Access to Surgical Events (EASE) app allows healthcare professionals to communicate medical updates to a patient’s loved ones. Physicians and nurses use the EASE MD app to send information, while the families and friends of patients use the EASE app to receive surgical updates. In addition to providing comfort and assurance to the patient and their family, users are also prompted to complete a survey detailing their level of satisfaction. This valuable data benefits healthcare professionals as they are able to evaluate and improve their processes leading to greater efficiency and patient satisfaction.

5. MMWR Express

The CDC’s MMWR Express mobile health app is a valuable resource for healthcare professionals. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report series provides the agency’s top scientific publications on public health information that are easily searchable by subject or disease. It downloads new content from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) so that users have access to up-to-date, authoritative diagnostic, preventive, and treatment information.

6. The Laboratory Response Network Rule-Out and Refer

This is another CDC-sponsored app that provides hospitals, public health agencies, and clinics with access to important information on six potential bioterrorism agents. These include Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Brucella species, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Burkholderia mallei, and Yersinia pestis. Essential biosafety and compliance information, reference links to the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) formal procedures, packaging and shipping information for Category A and B agents, and identification steps are readily available for healthcare professionals to keep their organizations securely guarded against devastating bioterrorism agents that can destroy populations.

7. NEJM This Week

The New England Journal of Medicine’s NEJM This Week app gives healthcare professionals access to timely medical articles, research findings, and case materials on a multitude of applicable topics. Other useful features include images of medical conditions, audio summaries, and audio texts from Clinical Practice articles and medical procedure videos. Having immediate access to peer-reviewed research, benefits clinicians, educators, and the medical community by helping them stay up to date and fully informed on a host of important issues.

8. MedPage Today

MedPage Today is another medical news app that provides current drug and disease information as well as covering 30 medical specialties and over 60 annual medical meetings and symposia. The app is a valuable source for clinical and health policy coverage for healthcare professionals. Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Education (CE) credits can be earned for free by professionals who participate in the educational activities offered by MedPage Today.

9. Evernote

One of the most useful information management apps for healthcare professionals is Evernote. This app enables users to take notes, store articles, links, and PDFs, sync files across multiple devices and share digital information with other clinicians, nurses, and administrators. As healthcare professionals deal with busy, stressful schedules, often working long hours and facing multiple complex medical situations daily, this makes organizing important notes and information easy and facilitates detailed searching so the right information can be referenced quickly and efficiently.

These applications are changing the business of healthcare. Mobile medical apps are also empowering organizations to run more efficiently by keeping professionals up to date on advances in medical science and technology and providing tools they need to do their jobs. In addition, increased patient engagement and satisfaction serve to improve outcomes and increase efficiency in healthcare organizations.

Learn More

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