Medicine may stand at the cusp of a mobile
transformation. Mobile health, or “mHealth,” is the use of portable devices
such as smartphones and tablets for medical purposes, including diagnosis,
treatment, or support of general health and well-being. Users can interface
with mobile devices through software applications (“apps”) that typically
gather input from interactive questionnaires, separate medical devices
connected to the mobile device, or functionalities of the device itself, such
as its camera, motion sensor, or microphone. Apps may even process these data
with the use of medical algorithms or calculators to generate customized
diagnoses and treatment recommendations. Mobile devices make it possible to
collect more granular patient data than can be collected from devices that are
typically used in hospitals or physicians' offices. The experiences of a single
patient can then be measured against large data sets to provide timely
recommendations about managing both acute symptoms and chronic conditions.
Full report here
Originally
published in The New England Journal of Medicine
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