The Role of Mobile Apps and Big Data in Enhancing Healthcare

Amidst the fierce competition, unending projects, strict deadlines, and over the top commitments; finding a peaceful hour is a far-fetched dream for many. Although the world is getting increasingly aware of the importance of a healthy lifestyle, many of us taking care of health has still not made it to the priority list. And regular check-ups, what is that?

However, owing to the recent advancements in technology and its collaboration with the healthcare industry, routine-checkups, regular health monitoring, healthy lifestyles, and cost-effective healthcare is becoming a reality.

WARC estimates that around 2 billion people currently access the internet via their smartphone, which equates to 51 percent of the global base of 3.9 mobile users.

So now you know where people are spending their time. With the use of the internet and smartphones at an all-time high, it is only wise to leverage it in the healthcare industry which needs it the most. And it’s happening!

Also according to Mobile Data Traffic Forecast by device – A research by CISCO, smartphones are becoming the most used way of generating traffic which can be effectively leveraged by healthcare.

This recently led to a huge surge in the usage of health-related apps and health-monitoring wearables.

The healthcare industry is changing

• 93% of physicians believe that mobile health apps can improve patients’ health. – GreatCall
• 80% of surveyed physicians use their mobile devices to assist in their day-to-day practice. – Skycure 
• 93% of physicians find value having a mobile health app connected to Emergency Health Services. – GreatCall
• 31% of surveyed organizations offer a specific app for patients while 30% are currently developing an app – HIMSS

All these applications give rise to humongous amounts of data. The data is unstructured and needs to be stored and analyzed to derive meaning. If done efficiently, it has the potential to change the way we know about healthcare.

Here are 5 ways Mobile apps and BigData is improving Healthcare

• Prevention- Our smartphones have become our life-trackers, quite literally. From counting the number of steps we walk, helping us to plan our diet to counting the calories we consume and even keeping track of our heart rate, mobile apps have made a healthy lifestyle easy and accessible. These records help us to be more conscious of our well-being. These ever-growing databases of information can also help doctors to detect any early signs of disease in the patient. This will help to formulate timely solutions and cure the disease even before it forms. All the information, when structured and organized, will lead to innovative remedies.

• Early detection – Most fatal diseases come with their tell-tale signs. However, the signs often go unnoticed making recovery nearly impossible. This is where big data and mobile apps can help. The mobile apps can continue to record the daily lifestyle details of a regular person thereby generating large amounts of unstructured data. Big Data can process Electronic Health Record (EHR) data and can derive meaningful information from it. This data when analyzed alongside thousands of others, will highlight the specific threats, if any. It will also help doctors to provide more accurate and evidence-based treatment and remedies.

• Real-time monitoring – It is not always feasible for the patient to see the doctor in real-time for various reasons. However, technology can make that possible for the patient from the convenience of his home. The doctor can get observe and analyze the data and immediate action can be taken, if an emergency arises. This is highly beneficial from rural people who may not have access to extensive healthcare facilities. Also, this saves the patient from going through the hassle of laborious procedures at a health-care center thereby saving his time and cost.

• Medical Innovation – Mobile apps and Big Data can actually lead to path-breaking work in the healthcare domain. As the doctors will have huge managed sets of patients’ data, they can collaborate with researchers and can come up with innovative pills and potions. There has been a recent discovery in the same context where, desipramine, commonly used as an antidepressant, was found to be having potential uses in curing types of lung cancer.

• Personalized medication – Like every other industry, healthcare, too, is expected to become personalized. This can lead to each person getting a highly specific treatment depending on his/her unique genetic makeup. This would lead to more effective results. Such medicines are developed by integrating a person’s genetic blueprint and data on their lifestyle. This data is further compared alongside thousands of others’ to come up with the best treatment.

• Medical Reminders– Healthcare isn’t always about the treatment of chronic diseases, it is also about regular reminders to take care of physical and mental health. For this, a medical practitioner cannot be available 24*7, but your smartphone can. The healthcare mobile applications can give timely reminders of something as basic as consuming 8 glasses of water in a day or taking your medicines on time. They can alert you when you’re low on physical activity or when you’ve done a lot of it. Also, they can regularly update you about your health improvements and remind you to be mentally resilient.

• Cost-effective – The cost of healthcare has never been higher than it is now. By reducing the need for the patient and the doctor to be physically present in front of each other, there can be a considerable cost cut-down. This will also lower down the infrastructure, staffing, and other related costs of medical centers thereby enhancing the quality of the treatment.

• Facility abuse– Big Data analytics will make sure that the patients do not abuse the healthcare facilities provided to them. Fraudulent activities such as overutilization of hospital’s services or receiving healthcare facilities from different hospitals simultaneously can be avoided.

CONCLUSION 

Mobile apps and Big Data have already revolutionized the world, to a great extent. The healthcare industry is no exception to this. The two big technologies, individually and combined, are sure to make healthcare cost-effective, accessible, and all the way more innovative. The goal is to not only get efficient treatments but also to need them a little less.