Smart phones are now tapping into the medical field. With on board sensors, cameras, microphones and amazing displays, Smart Phones with medical applications installed are capable of saving lives, money, and time. As younger doctors embrace the newest technologies and medical schools begin to issue smart phones to students the trend is rapidly growing in popularity. With nearly 6,000 applications related to health care, doctors and patients have immediate access to life saving information in their pockets. Is it possible that these smart phones could be the solution to Universal Health Care concerns?
However, regulations preventing use of these new technologies are slow to be revised and currently prevent turning the smart phone into a medical device. Until the regulations catch up with the newest technology we will have to wait to see an ultrasound scanner or an application to measure the oxygen content in the blood. There is current a push by many medical practitioners for the regulator agencies to embrace the new innovations while still protecting patients and doctors and not impede the development and research that brings the technology into the hands of those who can use it to benefit the public.
The free version of the iStethoscope allows you to listen to your heart and see a wave form of the beat. This application is currently being downloaded by over 500 users a day indicating the rapid acceptance of medical technology by the public. Other software that is currently available includes an application that allows patients to cough into the phone and get a diagnosis as to whether they have a simple cold or pneumonia. You can get an application that shows you what to do if someone is undergoing a medical emergency or cardiac episode, first aid procedures, blood pressure tracking. Even our pets are included with a pocket first aid application with videos and vaccine tracking for your dog.
Doctors can view x-rays, ultrasounds, CT and MRI images on the smart phones allowing diagnosis from remote locations. How long before a call to your doctor includes one of these diagnostic tests that you administer yourself with your phone? How long will it be before you can not only administer a test yourself, but access the diagnostic information and make a decision about your treatment. Sound unrealistic? It wasn’t that long ago that you had to visit a doctor to confirm a pregnancy, manage blood sugar, track your blood pressure, or get a drug test.. Now it is a quick trip to the local drug store or a hand held glucose meter.
Other applications are already on the shelf and include entire databases of medical texts, applications to help radiologists identify appropriate exams for a patient by searching a database of symptoms, and obstetricians can access fetal heart tracings, contraction patterns and nursing notes from the golf course and monitor labor until it is necessary to be at the patient’s side. And this is just the tip of the mountain of applications already available and these do not yet include applications that can actually perform tests such as an ECG or ultrasound. The technology is available that would allow such applications, just as soon as regulations can be re-written to allow their use.
As we move further and further into the technology dependence that has become life changing for many, one may find themselves responsible for more and more self-diagnosis and treatment. Medical costs soar and health care is often inadequate or absent. Will the smart phones be able to step in and replace the visit to your family doctor for those minor ailments like a cold or flu? With the availability of a full medical library in the palm of your hand, how ling before doctors become highly specialized in critical illnesses and less involved in the day to day health care of their patients. Perhaps the smart phone is really the answer to Universal Health Care.
