The ability to gather and access
information with the touch of a fingertip, and carry it around wherever you go
is invaluable for those working in this sector and a trend that is transforming
the industry as we speak.
The launch of the first truly
portable, user friendly and user experience (UX) rich tablet the Apple iPad, a
revolutionary device in terms of mobile computing is changing the way in which
the healthcare sector operates.
Regarding the iPad and other
portable tablets, the healthcare industry was enthusiastic about their features
and abilities, yet slow to jump on the bandwagon and truly adopt/embrace the
technology. The reason for this slow adoption is primarily due to issues
including security, privacy of patient information and data (regulations such
as HIPAA), and integration with backend systems. Additionally, no one truly
figured out how to create a compelling user experience for mobile applications
in this space. There was a lack of understanding about which apps would be best
suited for tablets in the healthcare segment.
This however, is all starting to
change. The rapid adoption of tablets, including the iPad both in the consumer
and enterprise world has put pressure on the healthcare industry to evolve and
truly embrace this new technology. This pressure stems from increasingly
prevalent industry trends and factors such as the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
phenomena, the use of healthcare apps in the consumer sector, and the overall
adoption of smartphones and other mobile devices by doctors, patients and
vendors alike. All of these trends have
brought a whirlwind of change to the healthcare sector.
The pressure to evolve was felt
by healthcare industry segment, as other segments of the industry were adapting
mobile technologies at a rapid pace, and the healthcare industry was
increasingly being viewed as laggards. Perceiving this weakness, many
entrepreneurs started writing apps for this segment as they realized that
doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare personnel had acquired
tablets and smartphones but they were lacking the apps to do their day to day
work using these devices. There was a vacuum in this space, and this reinforced
the pressure on the healthcare industry to move fast and close the gap.
Let’s take a closer look at the
evolution of tablet adoption across the healthcare spectrum:
Doctors and nurses were the early
adopters of tablets, which is no surprise given they were also the early
adopters of smartphones, and today, are the demographic that uses them the most
in the healthcare industry. Drugstores followed doctors and nurses as they
searched for better, more efficient and more convenient ways to serve
consumers. Drug stores began leveraging tablets to offer prescription and
non-prescription drug order applications and provide store and pharmacy
locations as well as drug-related information to patients.
The pharmaceutical industry
followed suit by developing apps and tablet-friendly mobile web sites that
offered important information about the drugs to doctors, nurses and patients
alike. The ability to access drug-related information on the go as well as a
patient’s allergic information at the same time helps doctors and pharmacists
to avoid prescribing and issuing medicine to patients that may cause them harm,
thus saving lives and costly healthcare expenditure in treating unwanted drug
interactions. Instant availability on patient and drug, disease and treatment
information results in fewer cases of misdiagnosis, quicker and safer drug
prescriptions, quicker approvals for Rx and a reduction in medical malpractice
lawsuits.
The bio-tech industry soon hopped
on board as they started adopting tablets for collecting observation data,
field level monitoring and quick image capture using the highly advanced tablet
cameras. Genentech is an example of a company that has embraced tablet use,
having standardized and issued more than 7,000 iPads to its employees
worldwide. The tablets run customized
native and mobile web apps that provide accurate reports including current
state of research on the many drugs and treatments that Genentech is working
on. It provides the dashboard customized for each user and a communications hub
built on top of Apple Facetime and iChat that allows employees in its San
Francisco headquarters to be connected over voice and video with field offices
in 30 other locations worldwide. Genetech also uses tablets to collect the
field information and patient data on clinical trials. Unlike the traditional
data collection methods, iPads enable them to record audio, video and high
resolution images of the patients and send them for processing and reference in
a centralized repository.
Finally, hospitals, healthcare
management facilities and institutions have now warmed up to the notion of
tablet use. These organizations are starting to use tablets for patient
monitoring, financials, inventory updates, notifications, communication as well
as to manage task lists. Stanford
medical Center Hospital in Palo Alto, California and its affiliates across the
nation, The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical center,
Kaiser Permanente, the largest healthcare provider in US, The Washington
hospital group among others now provides tablets to its doctors, paramedics,
pharmacists and administrative staff. They use the tablets to schedule patient
checkups in both outpatient and inpatient wards, issue and authorize
prescriptions, record and transmit patient data in multimedia format and use
instant live audio and video conferencing and chat features to enhance
collaboration. This model is being rapidly adopted across the spectrum by
healthcare providers in the United States.
There are several factors driving
the change in how the business and processes run inside healthcare
organizations. Healthcare organizations are moving from traditional methods of
information collection and retrieval to a mobile and on site and on demand
collection, retrieval, collaboration and communication in the healthcare
sector. Some of these changes are being
driven by the doctors, some by patients and others by pharmacies. Additionally,
bio-tech and pharmaceutical companies are in fierce competition which forces
them to evolve and embrace new technology if they wish to be successful. On the
provider side, no hospital or healthcare provider wants to be tagged as laggard
and outdated in terms of technology adoption, which is causing these
institutions to embrace tablets. It’s interesting to note that according to
data collected by Manhattan Research, 81% of physicians used a Smartphone in
2011, up from 72% in 2010. Doctors, nurses and patients are demanding access to
information on their tablets and smartphones, which is driving organizations to
embrace tablets.
In a separate study conducted by
American Electronics Association, doctors and patients were asked about how
they would like to use wireless devices (smartphones and tablets). Most of the
respondents wanted to use their device to communicate with their doctors,
pharmacists and nurses and vice versa. Many of them also want to be able to
store and access their healthcare records including diagnostic records online
through the mobile device.
The figure below explains the
questions asked and the response in detail:
What specific applications in the consumer and enterprise space are
driving tablet adoption?( Conversely, what apps are driven by the adoption of
tablets in the enterprise?).
The biggest use of tablets is
driven by the fact that patients feel the need to stay in touch with their
healthcare providers including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and health plan
administrators at all times. Patients are connected to their mobile devices
24/7, creating a natural platform from which they can interact with their
healthcare providers through applications.
A Healthcare IT Insights and
Opportunities’ study conducted by CompTIA found that 38% of physicians with
smartphones use medical apps on a daily basis. This figure is expected to rise
to 50% by the third quarter of 2012. It
was also found that two-thirds of respondents consider implementing or
improving mobile technologies to be a high or mid-level priority. Within
clinics, doctor’s offices, hospitals and laboratories, the biggest usage of
tablets stems from four main areas:
• Patient monitoring and data collection –
this includes using the Bluetooth enabled sensor devices and Wi-Fi+ Bluetooth
enabled interfaces to patient monitoring devices, to medical instruments that
can transmit information to the tablet when in the vicinity.
• Dashboard and Reports – covering patients,
prescriptions, diagnostics, legal, financial and operational information
summaries and details
• Appointment scheduling – this includes
doctor and nurse visits, laboratory tests, reminders, re-scheduling,
cancellations and delegation, doctor to assistant/junior doctor, nurse etc.
• Prescriptions, authorizations, refills,
patient-drug interaction and dosage management. Fast and timely approval of Rx
refills and Rx authorizations means the difference between life and death in
many cases and this is an area that smartphones and tablets help in reducing
the turnaround time required by doctors to approve the requests from pharmacies
and patents by up-to 90%.
What are the key advantages of using the tablets in healthcare space?
• Tablets avoid cumbersome and error prone
human data entry. They eliminate human introduced errors such as in data entry
by feeding in data form patient care systems.
• Tablets eliminate the need to record
information on paper and enter into systems.
This saves time, energy, money and improves efficiency.
• Easy information access: Tablets provide
rapid access to information wherever healthcare personnel need it
• Paperwork minimization: Tablets help
minimize the messy paperwork and the manual workflow process – again,
increasing efficiencies
• Voice, Video, Image and Text: The visual,
multimedia (audio, video) and graphics capabilities can be leveraged to record
and provide on demand information such as the visual images of a patient,
disease progression and sounds, such as an irregular heartbeat.
• Communication capability: Allows doctors,
nurses and other healthcare personnel to communicate virtually and more
effectively
• Privacy and Security of data: The iPad and
similar tablets provide 128 and even 256 bit encryption of data on storage and
transmission. This minimizes data leak and security violations from manual
handling of un-encrypted paper forms and other hard copy documents
Where is the industry headed?
Tablets are gaining an increasing
foothold in the healthcare sector across all segments. Tablets are improving
patient care wellness programs, hospitals, laboratories, clinic management
systems, pharmaceutical services and bio-technological advancements.
With doctors increasingly using
their own tablets to manage and maintain their schedules and reminders, the
healthcare organizations are now forced on building applications that are
optimized for tablets. These applications
provide the integration of existing information systems, and introduce tablets
as a form for both data gathering and dissemination of critical information.
New and emerging advancements in
technology have enabled patient monitoring devices and instrumentation to
communicate directly with tablets within a vicinity using tools such as
Bluetooth. These devices can also upload patient data using a Wi-Fi network
over the web, which can then be monitored in real time by nurses and doctors.
Increasingly sophisticated apps
are being created, which cater to all aspects of healthcare management for
usage by both healthcare personnel and patients. These apps range from
providing dashboards for patient information, disease and condition monitoring
to patient data collection and consolidation. Apps also help with business
intelligence and analytics, scheduling and calendar management, prescription
dispensing, pharmaceutical refills and authorizations, drugs and new treatment
information, collaboration, and communication. In terms of tablet adoption in
the healthcare industry, we have only begun to scratch the surface. With
technological advancements increasing by the day, the possibilities are endless
as healthcare professionals continue to search for better ways to provide care.
Rauf Adil
Rauf Adil is director of technology at Virtusa.
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