As healthcare organizations become more focused on exceeding quality of care metrics, many are turning to mHealth solutions like mobile apps to help both patients and staff to reach quality goals and save lives.
One organization investing heavily in mobile technologies is Emory University and Emory Healthcare . The university and the healthcare system implemented a mobile app strategy two years ago to provide both internal and external users with mobile capabilities and improve health outcomes.
We wanted to establish a process for identifying how mobile apps advance Emorys quality goals, said Stephen Wheat, chief IT architect at Emory, during a session at the Gartner Catalyst Conference last week. Emory decided, We are going to invest in mobile apps for quality reasons.
This investment lead Emory to internally develop 18 apps in the last two years to service various parts of their organization, including tools for patient information, surgical and procedure preparation and transplant information. On any given day Emory has over 24,000 mobile devices accessing these apps on its network.
While most healthcare practices wont require 18 apps, many physicians are looking to increase patient engagement and improve health outcomes using mHealth technologies.
Smart Clinic is the next generation of healthcare technology, filling in the gaps left by current PM, EHR and portal technologies to improve office workflow and out-of-the office interaction between patients and staff, thus making the time doctors spend with their patients in person even more valuable.
