mHealth saves doctors time to allow them to refocus on their patients

The term mHealth is widely used to describe the use of mobile technologies to give healthcare and to promote well-being. In the United States, extending the use of mHealth is “the country’s largest challenge”, in the words of the Obama government’s secretary for Health and Social Services, Kathleen Sebelius. Although enough scientific evidence has yet to be produced, everything seems to indicate that mHealth will be a lever of change in the health services as it has great potential for solving the inefficiency of the healthcare systems. An article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) analyses the opportunities.

Three key factors come together in the United States’ wager on mHealth: 

1. The urgency to find destructive solutions in order to break unsustainable health expenditure
2. The rapid and continuous growth in the number of wireless connections and mobile apparatuses
3. The need for personalised medicine focused on patients. 

However, it must be remembered that there are still considerable barriers on the deployment of mobile health in the North American country, which include the complexity of its healthcare system and doctors’ concern for the relationship between doctor and patient and a possible increase in their workload. Furthermore, the fact that patients have easy access to thousands of apps and devices means that extra work has to be done to revise and validate the tools of mHealth, a responsibility now met by the FDA in the United States. 

In any case, the experts believe that mHealth can transform healthcare in the United States if it is applied to inefficient practices and the challenges of the healthcare system, shared by patients and doctors:

• Patient empowerment: 

mHealth allows the self-management of health and acute symptoms; it also involves the improvement of monitoring, follow-up and the communication with the doctor of data referring to blood pressure, glucose levels and spirometric results, as well as other biometric information above all in patients with chronic diseases. Altogether it promotes faster diagnoses, better control of the disease and, in parallel, a fall in the number of visits to emergencies and Primary Attention.

• The management of symptoms and light problems:

There are currently devices and apps intended to treat and manage the majority of acute clinical cases wherever the patient might be. For example, with respect to light viral respiratory infections, it is already technically possible for doctors to make the selection and decide whether the patient needs exploration and tests thanks to the use of smartphones. Patients can even consult whether there are people in their local community (school, workplace, etc.) with the same symptoms. The reduction of health expenditure is therefore feasible.

• Management of chronic disease:

The health system in the United States is poorly designed in terms of managing chronic disease, as has been shown with the little success in controlling blood pressure, the most common chronic disease in the country. In this case, monitoring in one’s home is an effective method for improving control over blood pressure, reducing the need to go to the doctor and also reducing the associated risks. Patients with diabetes or respiratory problems such as asthma or COPD can also benefit from better control of their biometric values, even in real time and with personalised feedback from the health professionals.

• Improvement of the relationship between doctor and patient:

Although some healthcare professionals fear that the introduction of mHealth might distance doctors from patients, it is true that there is an opportunity to strengthen this relationship. If the unnecessary involvement of the doctors in calculating and analysing data is eliminated, they will have more time for the patients and to be able to focus on diagnosing and educating in health. 

Therefore in the United States, it is believed that mHealth has sufficient potential to change the way in which healthcare is currently given, and that the expectations of the administration, doctors and patients will be met. 

On the one side, patients will be able to become more involved in managing their own health and also enjoy a personalised medicine. On the other, mHealth allows doctors to save time to focus on the art of medicine. However, there is a long way to go and the first step along the way is to produce evidence in clinical practice to confirm the benefits of mHealth for all those involved. 

 
Bibliographical reference

Steinhubl, S. R, Muse. E. D, Topol, J. R. Can Mobile Health Technologies Transform Healthcare? JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association). 11 December 2013 [access: 11 February 2014]. Available at: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/...