Nowadays, we always discuss about Smartphone with friends or others around us. By the way, what is Smartphone? How smart is it? Simply, Smartphone is a combination of PDA and cell phone. In other words, it has features not only like those we can find on a computer but also making phone calls. Smartphone allows us to install and run many applications. It also let us access Internet. These features make Smartphone popular and become a useful device among different fields, especially in the medical field.
To satisfy health care practitioners' desire, many medical apps are developed and released. For example, medical calculators, clinical resource apps, medical dictionary apps, and apps for patients scheduling, prescription drug reference and electronic health record. We can read reference books, dictionary and patients' records on our Smartphone and thus not much space is taken up for storing the materials. In the old days, doctors and nurses need to write up all the data by hand, and stored them in paper form. The data could be ruined easier simply by a drop of water; as time goes by, ink might run out causes lost of important information about the patient's history. In the case of any emergency, it requires to search for the whole data base store which could be time consuming. However, medical apps can solve these problems now and physicians can search data anywhere and anytime. It also provides a better communication platform for physicians to transfer messages. They can just send out important information to the system through apps, and other colleagues can notice it immediately wherever. It seems convenient for physicians to have a Smartphone.
Nevertheless, in 2009, Software Advice surveyed health care professionals about their preference of Smartphone. According to the survey results, email, note taking and prescription drug reference are popular software among the respondents. They seldom do the clinical related tasks such as checking the medical image viewing and patients' records which are the top two tasks that physicians desire to do with their Smartphone. There seems to be a contradiction because those clinical related tasks are too slow to run or integrate with Smartphone. Therefore, they cannot work with Smartphone on a clinical base.
Apart from this, the growing popularity of Smartphone leads to security problem. Many people do many things with their Smartphone such as checking emails online. This would probably provide an extra platform for hackers to steal personal information from our phones. Furthermore, there is lack of software for securely managing the patient's record at present. If physicians handle the health care information with Smartphone, the patients' record could be leaked out easily. Potential danger of physical theft of Smartphone is also a concern. Smartphone is valuable and can be sold for a good price after all. However, it sometimes may not be stolen by others, but physicians lose it themselves; just like the staffs lost the USB which patients' information was stored a few months before. Therefore, it is not possible for physicians to use Smartphone as a "medical" device.
Like cell phones, long term exposure to Smartphone is harmful for our health. According to the report from Environmental Working Group, the top 10 Smartphone with highest radiation averagely emit 1.53 W/kg radiation, which nearly reach the upper legal limit, 1.6 W/kg. Some may probably argue that we can choose some Smartphone with low radiation. However, we would mostly choose the model based on the functions or appearance of Smartphone. Moreover, from the same research, there is a relationship between prolonged cell phone uses and brain cancer, salivary gland tumors and migraines. Health care professionals are "healer" but not the "killer". They should do no harm to themselves.
At last, Smartphone is an evidence of advanced technology. It is convenient for us to do things whenever and wherever. It also helps us to enhance the relationship with each other. There is nothing wrong with Smartphone, but it is not suitable to use Smartphone as a "medical" device now unless Smartphone has larger loading capacity to run the medical apps, can be protected securely, and emit low radiation. One more important thing is that there should be emergency measures in case of damaged medical apps, system or Smartphone. In the future, Smartphone would become a useful medical instrument.
To satisfy health care practitioners' desire, many medical apps are developed and released. For example, medical calculators, clinical resource apps, medical dictionary apps, and apps for patients scheduling, prescription drug reference and electronic health record. We can read reference books, dictionary and patients' records on our Smartphone and thus not much space is taken up for storing the materials. In the old days, doctors and nurses need to write up all the data by hand, and stored them in paper form. The data could be ruined easier simply by a drop of water; as time goes by, ink might run out causes lost of important information about the patient's history. In the case of any emergency, it requires to search for the whole data base store which could be time consuming. However, medical apps can solve these problems now and physicians can search data anywhere and anytime. It also provides a better communication platform for physicians to transfer messages. They can just send out important information to the system through apps, and other colleagues can notice it immediately wherever. It seems convenient for physicians to have a Smartphone.
Nevertheless, in 2009, Software Advice surveyed health care professionals about their preference of Smartphone. According to the survey results, email, note taking and prescription drug reference are popular software among the respondents. They seldom do the clinical related tasks such as checking the medical image viewing and patients' records which are the top two tasks that physicians desire to do with their Smartphone. There seems to be a contradiction because those clinical related tasks are too slow to run or integrate with Smartphone. Therefore, they cannot work with Smartphone on a clinical base.
Apart from this, the growing popularity of Smartphone leads to security problem. Many people do many things with their Smartphone such as checking emails online. This would probably provide an extra platform for hackers to steal personal information from our phones. Furthermore, there is lack of software for securely managing the patient's record at present. If physicians handle the health care information with Smartphone, the patients' record could be leaked out easily. Potential danger of physical theft of Smartphone is also a concern. Smartphone is valuable and can be sold for a good price after all. However, it sometimes may not be stolen by others, but physicians lose it themselves; just like the staffs lost the USB which patients' information was stored a few months before. Therefore, it is not possible for physicians to use Smartphone as a "medical" device.
Like cell phones, long term exposure to Smartphone is harmful for our health. According to the report from Environmental Working Group, the top 10 Smartphone with highest radiation averagely emit 1.53 W/kg radiation, which nearly reach the upper legal limit, 1.6 W/kg. Some may probably argue that we can choose some Smartphone with low radiation. However, we would mostly choose the model based on the functions or appearance of Smartphone. Moreover, from the same research, there is a relationship between prolonged cell phone uses and brain cancer, salivary gland tumors and migraines. Health care professionals are "healer" but not the "killer". They should do no harm to themselves.
At last, Smartphone is an evidence of advanced technology. It is convenient for us to do things whenever and wherever. It also helps us to enhance the relationship with each other. There is nothing wrong with Smartphone, but it is not suitable to use Smartphone as a "medical" device now unless Smartphone has larger loading capacity to run the medical apps, can be protected securely, and emit low radiation. One more important thing is that there should be emergency measures in case of damaged medical apps, system or Smartphone. In the future, Smartphone would become a useful medical instrument.
Reference
- EEZIPC.com. (n.d.). Radiation from SmartPhones . Retrieved from http://www.eezipc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=57
- International Business Times. (2010, June 23). E-Records Could Be Hazardous to Your Health. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/30165/20100623/electronic-health-records-hazardous-to-health.htm
- Software Advice. (2009, July 30). Which Smartphone Will Own the Healthcare Market? Retrieved from The Medical Blog: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/smartphone-survey-results-1073009/
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