Changing the Way 26 R
EMEMBER THE old days of standalone personal digital assistants (PDAs)? I still remember walking around the hospital with an Apple Inc.
Newton MessagePad in my hand. The Palm Pilot that followed quickly became a popular tool for healthcare professionals and students because they no longer needed to memorize drug dosages and could access drug database information quickly. These mobile gadgets also could house thousands of books and medical reference guides. That meant the white coats we wore became really light because we could replace paper books with e-books on our PDAs.
Technology Is Everywhere Today, although we live in the era of the smartphone,
we know there still are many physicians who choose not to use it in their clinical practice despite its popularity. Part of the reason is because there is already a lot of technology around them. As hospitals become equipped with electronic health
record (EHR) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems, healthcare professionals working in a clinical setting can access a wealth of information at their fingertips because they are surrounded by digital devices ranging from PCs to iPads. Physicians who work primarily in an outpatient
setting also are moving into the digital era. This change is occurring slowly, however, and many physicians still use paper medical records in their offices. Eventually these outpatient practices also will become computer- based, and physicians will have multiple computers and mobile devices in their offices. So, if physicians are (or will be) surrounded by
computers, what does this mean for smartphone use? As it turns out, the benefits of smartphones in a clinical setting are evolving.
Clinicians Communicate HOW SMARTPHONES ARE IMPROVING PATIENT CARE BY DR. JOSEPH KIM
3 Ways Smartphones Enhance Healthcare 1) Smartphones can become an extension of your
EHR or CPOE system. Many such systems have apps that allow you to access critical patient data when you’re not near a computer. You can receive an alert about a patient when you’re working in the office, or you can monitor critical biometrics when you’re having lunch in the cafeteria. You can access your EHRs and enter an order through your CPOE system even when you’re not near a computer. These time-saving tasks can improve clinical workflow efficiency for busy healthcare professionals who often are rushing from one thing to another.
2) Mobile devices are revolutionizing the way
healthcare professionals communicate. In the past, a subspecialist might see a patient and write a consult note in the chart. If you were lucky, you might get a call from the specialist and you might discuss the patient over the phone. In most cases, you would read the consult note in the chart the next day. Now digital communication technologies allow us to receive information almost instantly. Physicians use Short Message Service (SMS) or internal messaging platforms via their smartphones. Nurses send brief messages to physicians instead of relying on alphanumeric pagers. In most cases, using smartphones can improve workflow and communication among the members of a healthcare team.
3)Finally, with the general population increasingly
using smartphones, the devices can become effective ways to educate patients. During a routine office visit, for example, a physician might choose to recommend a particular smartphone application to a patient
CONNECTION
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