With the recent advancements in the technological landscape, health organizations are able to employ technologically improved equipments and treatment procedures to deliver superior quality care and enhanced patient outcomes. Consumer technology companies such as Google, Apple, and Samsung rush to healthcare to transform patient engagement. Google, Apple and Samsung make new overtures to bring mobile, cloud and wearable technology to healthcare. These technologies would lead to safer and better patient care, and improve the entire health care system. This paper will discuss the potentiality of the proposals made by Google, Apple, and Samsung by evaluating how consumer health technologies could enhance patients’ understanding of their health condition, improve patient outcomes, and limit the overall health costs.
In addition, the application of technology as a whole can enhance patient outcomes. When the patient has insight into his condition and takes treatment regularly, he is likely to enjoy fast recovery and enhanced patient safety. The following session will discuss how patient insight can impact the treatment outcomes. There is an undeniable link between patient insight and patient attitude. When the patient has at least a moderate insight into his health condition, he would be really aware of the prognosis of the disease and seriously think about responsive treatment methods. In other words, the insight into the disease may influence the patient to think seriously how he could survive the health issue. Also, patient attitude and treatment outcomes are interrelated. The patient would develop a positive mindset when he is actually informed of his illnesses, and such an attitude may increase the patient’s responsiveness to clinical procedures and medications. Researchers like Martin, Williams, Haskard, DiMatteo (2005) indicate that the patient’s attitude towards the treatment is a crucial factor affecting the patient’s clinical experience and health outcomes.
Furthermore, the growing scope of consumer technology in the field of healthcare is beneficial to improve the availability of physician services and to avoid unnecessary delay in healthcare delivery. To illustrate, since patients can transmit the details of their vital health signs to physicians instantly using advanced technologies, they do not want to wait until the next appointment. Hence, patients obtain quick access to physician services when they use consumer health technologies to manage their health condition.
With regard to making and maintaining health assessment reports, with the effective use of smartphones and other mobile devices, patients can transmit their vital heath signs such as pulse rate and BP level directly to physicians or other authorized health professionals. As the physician has access to the patient’s previous health records stored electronically, he can instantly give the patient well-informed medical advises. In addition, the use of consumer health technologies may assist the physician to detect early warning signs of health complications before the patient is actually affected by them. In other words, these technologies would facilitate early preparation and assessment of patient health reports.
Convenience of time and money is another advantage. According to O’Conner (2014), today most of the people own a smartphone, which is commonly used as a key communication platform to facilitate the interaction between the patient and the physician. In addition, today smartphone companies are offering an array of health-promoting mobile apps to their clients. With the support of their smartphones, people can transit their health signs to physicians and receive instant medical advices without actually visiting the hospital or any other healthcare setting. Hence, this facility can benefit people to take advantage of time and money.
Health care technology can eliminate delayed care. As physicians are capable of keeping track of patients’ previous health records, they do not need to investigate deeply into the case every time they attend a particular patient. This facility enables physicians to provide his clients with instant and quality care. With the recent developments in wearable and cloud-based health technologies, physicians can treat patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes without actually seeing them in person. Hence, they can treat a larger size of patient population.
The sensible use of consumer technologies in healthcare can assist the audience (patients) to cut down their long-term health costs and thereby help the government minimize its healthcare spending. By using consumer health technologies, patients can become aware of their changing health conditions, and hence can become cautious in managing/treating the health problems timely. This practice would assist them to cut down their health costs in the long term. To illustrate, a diabetic using consumer health technologies would be aware of his changing blood glucose levels and hence he can take proper medications and consume low sugar-content foods if there is an increase in the blood glucose level. In contrast, a diabetic relying on periodical lab tests to know his blood glucose levels may not be informed of some unexpected changes in the blood glucose levels and eventually he may be forced to take insulin injections daily. Evidently, this situation would add to his health costs.
It adds benefits to government budget in many respects. When the overall health costs of patients decline, it can assist the government to improve its health budget by limiting healthcare spending. The following session will describe how consumer health technologies can benefit the government economically. Reduction in payment to insurers is another advantage. In the United States, health insurance programs may include privately-purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the Federal government. If consumer health technologies proposed by Google, Apple, and Samsung are able to reduce the individual health costs, then the government can cut down its payments to insurers and other health providers.
Obviously, the system allows increased investment in healthcare R&D. With the declining healthcare spending, the Federal government can invest more in healthcare R&D to develop improved drugs, treatment methods, and technologies. In addition, the government can incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop more effective medicines and medical equipments.
Investing in healthcare R&D has greater significance. In the context of the outbreak of new deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola and a growing sedimentary lifestyle, it is necessary to invest heavily in healthcare R&D to develop effective medications and treatment technologies. In addition, investing heavily in R&D is a better strategy to render an improved clinical experience to patients and to enhance the overall outcomes of the country’s health industry.
Consumer technology companies such Google, Apple, and Samsung are developing innovative mobile, cloud, and wearable technologies to apply in the healthcare environment and to enhance patient engagement significantly. These technologies are capable of promoting a safer and better patient care while improving the entire health care system. Today consumer health technologies can play a notable role in enhancing the patient understanding of his health condition, which is a key factor influencing the pace of recovery and the quality of health care outcomes. In addition, these technologies are able to improve the availability of physician services and to eliminate the delay in rendering health services to patients. Finally, if consumer technology giants such as Google, Apple, and Samsung manage to develop high quality and affordable health technologies, the situation would assist patients and the government to trim down their health spending in the long-term. From the above discussion, it is clear that the overtures being made by the consumer technology companies such as Google, Apple, and Samsung may significantly transform the face of healthcare industry, specifically the way patients access health care services.
References
Levy, S. (2014). High-Tech Devices Help Patients Manage Diabetes, High Blood Pressure. Healthline News. Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/health-news/mobile-health-apps-for-diabetes-072914
Martin,L. R., Williams, S. L., Haskard, K. B & DiMatteo, R. (2005). The challenge of patient adherence. Ther Clin Risk Manag, 1(3): 189–199.
O’Conner, F. (2014). As health care digitizes, consumer technologies will have greatest impact, says panel. PC World. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2685932/as-health-care-digitizes-consumer-technologies-will-have-greatest-impact-says-panel.html
