HOW MOBILE APPS ARE

CHANGING THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE

By Jeff Nevil

‘Mobile technology has created a

new landscape for healthcare

provisions and services. What can

we expect over the next few years?’

INTRO

Healthcare has long been an important milestone

in the maturity of mobile applications, with

numerous tech firms racing to provide the best quality product.

These products have come in a broad range of

diverse applications, many of which are still in use

within the industry.

IBM & APPLE PARTNERSHIP

IBM announced it was partnering with Apple to

combine its health services, in an effort to further its respective platforms as fully functioning medical

information and analytics services.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#

/media/File:Apple_Computer_Logo_rainbow.svg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/IBM_logo_history.PNG

&

Apple and IBM’s new

technology aims to create an

all-encompassing medical

platform, taking aspects from

each market competitor.

The companies plan to

launch a range of

software solutions which can be incorporated into

every day medical

general practice.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10845359@N02/4442486024

At the centre of the announcement is IBM’s smart data processing machine Watson….

WHAT THE TECHNOLOGY CAN DO

IBM’s technology will use advanced analytics technology to

gather information (if consent is given by the user) from the

Apple’s ResearchKit and HealthKit platforms, using it to further

studies into medical science. Both of Apple’s healthcare

platforms were launched alongside the iPhone 6.

http://www.apple.com/uk/researchkit/

BENEFITS

With data generated from

the collaboration, it is

believed that medical

professionals will be

granted a wealth of user

generated information,

giving a much greater understanding of the

numerous factors that

could contribute to

curable diseases.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10845359@N02/4443468922

Investments in the

mobile health

technology market itself

are projected to reach

£8billion by 2018.

http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/black-money-growth-chart_810152.htm#term=money&page=1&position=38

John Kelly, a senior vice-president of IBM’s research facilities stated;“We are going to enable personalised healthcare on a huge scale. We all recognize that outcomes aren’t what we hope for. Costs are skyrocketing. On the other side, so much data is collected”

http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/10/John-Kelly.jpg

PROBLEMS FACED

The biggest problem in analysing healthcare data is collating it

properly. The information already exists, and is gathered from

hospitals and private healthcare facilities, but is not maintained

or managed in any way, resulting in the difficulties faced by

many other analytics platforms.

With IBM and Apple connecting their future

healthcare technologies, the future is changing

dramatically for medical technology. Mobile apps

are becoming more easily accessible with each new piece of hardware, and increasingly are being

recognised as the best platform to reach the

majority of consumers.

http://www.apple.com/uk/researchkit/

https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

The Yellow Card Scheme helps the

MHRA monitor the safety of all

healthcare products in the UK.

Reports can be made for all medicines

including vaccines, immunoglobulins,

herbal medicines and homeopathic

remedies.

You can even make reports about the

medical devices available on the UK

market.

OTHER MEDICAL

TOOLS

Not only are medical professionals enabled through

healthcare apps such as ResearchKit, but now so

are patients.

There are currently millions of people seeking to take

part in clinical trials around the world, and mobile

medical software is providing potential platforms

platform in which patients can easily contact any

CRO, medical care facility, or specialised

healthcare provider to enquire about new research

and possible cure trials.

The information collected could be analysed for a variety of statistics related to treatment, as well as gradually building statistics on regional illnesses in on-going attempts to draw conclusions on what causes certain diseases.

Combining the data collected with other clinical trial serviceswill help pharmacies, hospitals and healthcare systems to better improve our healthcare system in the future to come. https://www.alcura-health.com/web/healthcare-

professionals/about/infographic

The overall success of the

platform will depend on which

aspects are adopted by the

professional medical

community. Subsequently, its

continued success will also be

decided on how willing

patients and consumers are to

put their future healthcare into

the hands of corporations, both

of which are primarily focused

on developing technology-

based solutions, as opposed to

working in healthcare itself.

For more of the things

I write, follow me on Twitter

@JeffNevil

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icons_771398.htm#term=twitter&page=1&position=19