How mobile healthcare and patient monitoring solutions will help deliver enhanced patient care?

Recent technological advances have disrupted everything, from businesses to individuals’ lives. These advancements are making unprecedented leaps in the healthcare space, enabling it a biggest tech adopter to deliver better care facilities and reap improved outcomes over patients’ health records.

In this adaption and adoption trend in healthcare, mHealth (Mobile Health) devices are increasingly showing themselves as an emerging method to improve patient engagement. And due to its popularity amongst users, the expectation is high that it may be the next biggest breakthrough in the healthcare industry.

Indeed, recent research indicates that patients are prodigiously favoring to utilize mHealth devices. With almost 72 percent of patients, a study revealed that they have faith in mHealth devices that foster patients to make better health decisions and take charge of their health.

So, for better patient engagement, there are two most effective devices, including remote monitoring devices and mHealth devices that also responsible for secure messaging. mHealth coalesces wireless technologies with portable healthcare devices, cost and convenience factors, and high-end innovations in technology. According to reports, the global mHealth market is likely to reach from US$10.57 billion in 2014 to US$58.80 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 33.5%.

Impact on Chronically Ill Patients

One of the most frequently cited benefits to remote monitoring tools is that it has a vast impact on chronically ill patients and patients in high-risk populations. If chronically ill patients connect to remote patient monitoring tools, they will have access to control and keep track of their own health in addition to connect with their providers regarding any specific concerns.

See the capabilities of these devices with an instance, which was deliberated in an investigation by HIMSS member and registered nurse Deborah Greenwood. According to her investigation, patients who suffer from diabetes were able to better adjust their healthcare when connected with remote glucose monitoring devices. The devices were able to gather data regarding glucose levels of each individual and present the data collected to the patient in easy-to-read charts, also teaching them about assessing their levels.

Leveraging Tempting Devices

With the growing adoption of emerging technologies across healthcare departments, healthcare CIOs are constantly reminded of the importance of using technology to increase patient engagement and gratification in their organizations. But, with the different investment options in the marketplace, CIOs and chief medical information officers (CMIOs) should focus on a handful of key areas to make sure they can receive true ROI to advance patient engagement and experience.

Though it’s patchy to find out the direct impact of technology on patient satisfaction scores, it does make an alteration in the patient experience and contributes to the overall level of engagement.

Opportunities to Improve Patient Engagement Strategies

Delivering improved and better patient engagement strategies require thinking about patient care over technology. A care provider should consider every technology to reach out their patient and connect them for better and satisfied care.

There are numerous opportunities where healthcare systems can utilize mHealth and monitoring technologies to improve patient engagement.

Deliver Patient Information to Mobile Devices

According to a figure, around 58 percent of website traffic comes from mobile devices. With this insight, the statistic shows, patients are likely to more prefer handheld devices to gain access to their health information. So, this is a vital area for CIOs to consider if their organization doesn’t have a mobile presence.

With mobile apps, healthcare centers can significantly improve patient engagement that offers patients access to their health records, medications, among other health data.

Engage with Alerts and Reminders

Healthcare organizations can engage their patients and keep them on track with sending alerts and reminder notifications of their medication, availability of doctors to their related ailment, upcoming appointments and other treatment activities.

Personalize Patient Edification Systems

Typically, healthcare organizations often rely on basic patient education material, text and web-based, around different conditions. So, a caregiver should consider adopting patient education tools, including audio, video, charts and virtual assistants-like formats of education content that can support in personalizing content to the individual patient. It can also be a great way to share information with patients that ensures they have a good understanding of the information their caregiver wants them to perceive.

In due course, by encouraging patients to involve in certain follow-up care processes, specifically in maintaining a proper medication calendar, mHealth apps can improve the quality of a patient’s follow-up care.