Electronic Health Reporter

Guest post by Scott Parker, senior marketing analyst, CureMD.

Healthcare needs to be efficient in delivering care to the patient. What if iPad and iPhone apps provide the services healthcare professionals need? Wouldn’t that be a dream come true? The mobile healthcare market is talk of the town in healthcare circuits. The amazing thing is, mostly mobile EHRs are free. Soon to be launched CureMD’s app Avalon will be free too. It is free because you only pay for the services you use.

Medical history on fingertips: Healthcare professionals only dreamt about a day, when the ease of access in terms of patient data could take a step further, and somehow make them get off their boring computer screens. All of patient’s data is just a few taps away with mobile EHR. Providers can access an up-to-date list of current and past diagnoses of the patient; along with list of medications the patient has been formally prescribed.

Empowering patients: Mobile EHRs are not just for care providers. They are for patients as well. Patients can use mobile EHR to view their test results along with clinical summaries of their visit to the practice. They can keep track of their vaccinations, making it convenient for the providers and staff to arrange an appointment. If providers are able to empower patients through mobile EHR they are essentially empowering themselves.

Accurate sharing of patient information: Mobile EHRs provides a coordinated system of care through its function of interoperability. It allows for secure exchange of data among multiple providers, practices and healthcare facilities in real-time. This will provide a better support structure for informed clinical decisions. All in all, it reduces manual medical errors caused by humans trying to provide information through lethargic channels.

Sharing information: Patients cannot learn everything while on an appointment. So, what is the best option available? Information sharing through mobile EHR is a handy alternative. Instead of being overwhelmed with the information provided by the provider, links to educational resources can be accessed for later review.

Reducing patient visits: It is highly inconvenient for chronic patients to visit the hospital facility every time the patients have an issue. Through mobile EHRs, patients can communicate their health issues with the provider by providing details on their present health condition. Mobile EHRs will pave the way for healthcare IT with high-quality virtual communication of patients with providers. Patient visits are also reduced through the exchange of patient data such as blood tests via mobile EHRs allowing for better monitoring of the patient’s health at the point-of-care.

As more and more processing power fits into smartphones, mobile EHR’s potential will grow. It is going to revolutionize healthcare IT by coming up with features such as speech recognition technology, automatic transcription services and more.