The Impact of Mobile Technology on Custom EHR Solutions
The smartphone penetration rate in the United States is over 96%, which roughly translates to 310 million users. This would give you an idea about the role mobile technology plays in our day-to-day lives.
Furthermore, in an attempt to make healthcare more accessible, the government has already made attempts to make a technological shift, and the pinnacle of this has been the introduction of EHR.
Despite being only limited to the desktop systems, its introduction has carved a new roadmap for the future of healthcare landscape. In this blog, let’s discuss the impact of mobile health (mHealth) technology on custom EHR solutions and how it is shaping the face of the healthcare landscape.
Apart from that, let’s also explore how a custom EHR software development with mobile health (mHealth) access for your healthcare practice can enhance your practice and make it more efficient, accessible and help in effective healthcare delivery.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
The Evolution of Mobile Technology in Healthcare
The introduction of mobile health (mHealth) in healthcare can be tracked back to the early 2000s, when smartphones just started to make their place in the healthcare landscape. While earlier it was just limited to the manual administrative procedures like appointment scheduling, reminders, and medication alerts, further advancements changed the way we receive and even provide healthcare services.
For instance, in 20120, mobile apps for healthcare shot up in popularity amongst professionals for the ease it brought in accessing patient data. This marked an imminent point in the advancement of custom healthcare software and opened the doors for mobile-centric healthcare solutions.
Despite its lucrative benefits of mobile apps in healthcare, the turning point came fairly recently during the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost everyone was introduced to the digital healthcare landscape, and the role of mHealth apps has become an integral part of the modern healthcare industry, and a major part of it had to be the Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
The Power of Mobility in Custom EHRs
The power that mobile technology and custom EHR solutions have brought to the healthcare landscape has changed the healthcare industry for everyone. Here are some of the ways in which it has helped the healthcare industry become better:
Enhanced Clinician Workflow and Efficiency
Mobile apps give you direct access into the healthcare systems from anywhere at any time, all you need for this is a smartphone with an internet connection. So if you have a custom mobile healthcare app, then facilitating tasks like medication, repetitive administrative tasks, and patient charting becomes much easier and can be done literally anytime.
Furthermore, to bridge the communication gaps that are normally present in traditional healthcare practices, secure communication features like secure messaging and telehealth capabilities, it becomes even more convenient to connect with your healthcare provider and receive healthcare services.
In this way, with a custom mobile healthcare app, your providers get more time with patient care, and 34% of time spent on administrative tasks are avoided. This way the overall clinical efficiency is enhanced and workflow is streamlined.
Improved Patient Engagement and Communication
Just like a custom EHR software, a custom mobile EHR app, also comes with patient portals. These patient portals empower patients with accessibility and provide them with tools which improves their communication and engagement.
For instance, a patient can easily schedule their appointments and communicate with the providers with the use of multiple communication channels. This allows them to easily manage their healthcare services and receive care in a more convenient way. Apart from that, with medication reminders, remote patient monitoring capabilities and telehealth consultations, patients are empowered to actively take part in their care journey.
In this way, mobile apps empower patients to proactively participate in their care journey and directly improve their adherence to care services. This will not only enhance their care journey with personalized care delivery but also allow them to have a satisfactory experience.
Data Collection and Analysis at the Source
With remote patient monitoring coming into the digital healthcare landscape, the role of mobile apps is becoming even more evident in capturing real-time patient data. For instance, with mobile EHR system integration with the wearable or RPM devices, the collected patient data can be directly fed into the EHR systems.
This eliminates the time required to manually feed data into EHR systems. It makes the care delivery process easier for healthcare providers as they get to access patient health data in real-time with mobile data for personalized care delivery, proactive interventions and even in effective management of population health.
However, though it closes the gaps in data collection and analysis while developing a custom mobile EHR app, data security and privacy concerns must be addressed.
Key Considerations for Mobile Integrations
Mobile apps can close the gap between patients and providers to an extent we cannot even imagine. The time taken for care delivery with mHealth apps is considerably less, but there are some challenges that you must overcome. To help you prepare for developing your ideal custom mobile EHR app, here are some key considerations that you must address:
Platform Compatibility and Device Diversity
Your custom EHR mobile app needs to be compatible with all devices so that your patients and providers don’t have any trouble in accessing their health records or care services. For example, some of your patients might be using Android and some iOS, so developing an app which only runs on Android is pointless for the rest of the patient population.
For a custom EHR mobile app development approach which is compatible for all the devices and platforms can improve the accessibility by a margin. Furthermore, while addressing the compatibility concerns you must also focus on providing a seamless user experience across different platforms, as it plays a huge role in patient satisfaction levels and in building patient loyalty.
Data Security and Regulatory Compliance
Since you will be dealing majorly with the sensitive information of your patients, as healthcare providers it automatically becomes your responsibility to protect and safeguard that information. That is data security and compliance with regulatory requirements becomes even more evident.
Some of the compliance regulations that you must comply with are HIPAA in the United States and GDPR if you’re set out of Europe. Some of the best practices to comply with data security and regulatory compliance is to abide by them during the mobile app development process and handle data in such ways.
Also, some of the best practices is to implement robust data encryption and implement role-based access control for only authorized personnel to access health information. And following the regulatory compliance for mHealth.
Workflow Integration and User Adoption
Seamless integration between mobile applications and the core EHR systems is necessary to ensure care is delivered accurately and efficiently. This is because the lack of integration can lead to data silos which can create gaps in care delivery.
Some of the best ways to integrate your custom mobile healthcare app with an EHR system is to follow interoperability standards. Apart from that, for promoting user adoption, providing your healthcare staff with effective hands-on training can help them in enhancing their mobile functionality.
The Future of Mobile-Enabled Custom EHRs
The future of mobile-enabled EHRs have the potential to be effective healthcare partners when combined with AI and machine learning.
Let’s see the impact of AI on mobile healthcare with a possible application, consider an app that examines your health information, forecasts any dangers, and even recommends tailored medical treatments. It’s the future, not just a dream! Remote monitoring could be transformed by mobile technologies. Imagine having sensors that monitor your health and provide information straight to your physician, allowing for proactive treatment and averting issues.
Custom mobile EHRs could evaluate your individual genetic composition and create treatment regimens for you thanks to developments in customized medicine. No more universally applicable answers. Additionally, chatbots driven by AI provide round-the-clock assistance, respond to inquiries, and help patients make better health decisions.
There is no denying the trend toward telemedicine. In order to provide remote diagnosis, virtual consultations, and medication monitoring, mobile apps will be essential. This encourages prompt healthcare delivery in addition to improving accessibility.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the development of mobile technology in the medical field has resulted in revolutionary shifts, particularly with the incorporation of personalized Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Real-time data gathering and analysis are made possible by mobile EHRs, which also increase patient engagement and clinical productivity. Mobility is powerful because it can improve patient-centered, efficient, and accessible healthcare.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have the potential to transform customized healthcare and usher in a new era of proactive and effective medical treatments in the future of mobile-enabled custom EHRs. The possibilities are endless as we embark on the journey towards a healthcare system enhanced by digital technology.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mobile technology enhances accessibility to EHR systems by providing healthcare providers with the ability to access and manage patient information from anywhere, at any time, using their smartphones or tablets. This increased accessibility improves efficiency, communication, and decision-making, ultimately leading to better patient care.
Integrating telehealth features into custom EHR solutions offers several benefits. It enhances patient access to care, especially for remote or underserved populations. Telehealth also improves efficiency by streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burdens. Additionally, it fosters better patient engagement through convenient virtual consultations, leading to improved adherence to treatment plans and overall better health outcomes.
Mobile EHR applications prioritize data security and privacy through robust measures like encryption, strong authentication, access controls, regular security audits, and compliance with regulations like HIPAA. They often employ secure cloud storage and data transfer protocols to protect sensitive patient information.
Healthcare organizations implementing mobile EHR solutions face challenges such as data security and privacy concerns, interoperability issues, potential for increased healthcare costs, and the need for robust technical infrastructure and support.
Mobile technology is revolutionizing custom EHR solutions. AI and machine learning are enhancing decision-making, while interoperability and data exchange are breaking down silos. Cloud-based solutions and remote access are enabling seamless data management and accessibility, and mobile integration is empowering healthcare on the go. These trends are collectively shaping the future of EHRs, making them more efficient, patient-centric, and secure.
