Smartphones In Healthcare
What if the future involved using your smartphone as a digital mobile medical clinic? Well, that’s exactly what is happening in healthcare today.
Imagine you have been suffering from mild abdominal pain for the past few hours and instead of driving to see your local MD, you pick up your smartphone.
Diagnosis At The Touch Of Your Finger
Within minutes, you receive a diagnosis that you are suffering from dyspepsia or a mild form of indigestion and are offered some recommendations for treatment and prevention.
Welcome to the new healthcare.
Accessibility
The beauty of this is that anyone with a smartphone and internet connection can use these sophisticated apps to access information and diagnostic tools to manage acute and chronic conditions.
It puts the power back in the hands of the person who needs it the most…the patient.
Digital Healthcare
This new field of digital healthcare apps has the potential to change the lives of many people around the world and Australia is one country that is leading the charge.
With its already existing attachment to smartphones and tablets, Australians are fully embracing this new digital age of medical care.
Managing Care
From managing cancer care to understanding postpartum depression, Australian developers are making major breakthroughs in creating apps that are making a difference.
CancerAid
Developed by two Sydney doctors, Dr Raghav Murali-Ganesh and Dr Nikhil Pooviah, CancerAid is an app that empowers cancer patients to manage their treatment, provides current medically-accurate research on cancer treatments, and allows them to connect with others that are experiencing similar illness journeys.
Journaling their symptom and treatment course is also another powerful feature that allows them to be supported by their care team.
Considered the number one cancer app in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, CancerAid is playing a key role in helping remove the isolation that cancer patients often feel.
Brainy App
Melbourne-based app developer, B2Cloud, teamed up with Alzheimer’s Australia and Bupa Health Foundation to create an app that helps raise awareness of the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.
Taking a behavior medication approach, Brainy App promotes the health of both heart and brain through positive, life-enhancing activities. From getting enough sleep, improving your diet and exercise routine, and incorporating mental challenges into your day, Brainy App works to reduce the risk factors responsible for dementia.
Brainy App requires the user to log their activities throughout the day and awards them points for health-promoting ones that support their brain health.
Rise and Recharge
Another app that is geared towards promoting a healthy lifestyle, Rise and Recharge focuses on reducing the risk factors for diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer by encouraging active lifestyles.
Vodafone Foundation Australia, an organization that promotes the use of smart technology to improve the health of Australians, partnered up with the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute to develop an app that raises awareness about the health risks of sedentary behavior.
Rise and Recharge targets those users who are at risk of prolonged sitting and encourages them to set reminders to rise up from their chair every 20-30 minutes and move around and be active.
PPD Act
Alongside a team of international researchers, the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland has teamed up with the University of Toronto to oversee the Australian and Canadian arms of a massive international research study aimed at understanding postpartum depression.
The research project hopes to understand the roles of genetics and environment in developing the risk for postpartum depression.
The app is designed to gather real-time information from participants who have suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis.
On The Front Lines
With Australia being on the front lines of medical innovation and breakthroughs, the potential for this era of digital healthcare is limitless.
References:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/home-entertainment/gaming/apps/aussiemade-smartphone-apps-the-new-heart-of-healthcare/news-story/931c1e55b5ddadf423c6ae0ad76d4514
https://www.ft.com/content/1efb95ba-d852-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6aa8e
https://www.australiaunlimited.com/technology/aussie-apps-on-the-medical-frontline
http://www.canceraid.com.au/http://www.canceraid.com.au/
https://brainyapp.com.au/#more
http://www.riserecharge.com/
http://www.pactforthecure.com/