GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

VECHOOCHIRA

SEMINAR REPORT
ON

INFLUENCE OF SMARTPHONE IN HEALTHCARE

SUBMITTED BY
VYSAKH S
REG NO: 20240186

DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

2022-2023
 GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE
VECHOOCHIRA

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. VYSAKH S (Reg.No:20240186), fifth semester student of

biomedical engineering has satisfactorily completed the seminar report entitled
“INFLUENCE OF SMAARTPHONES IN HEALTHCARE” in Accordance with the
syllabus of technical department of Kerala.

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT GUIDE

EXTERNAL EXAMINER INTERNAL EXAMINER

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my gratitude to Mrs. REINU B JOSE, principal of the institution, for providing
me with adequate facilities, ways and means by which I was able to complete this seminar.

I express my sincere gratitude to my seminar guide Mrs. ASHA ND, for this constant
support and valuable suggestions without which the successful completion of this seminar
would not have been possible.

I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Mrs. ASHA ND, head of biomedical
engineering for their co-operation and support.

I express my immense pleasure and thankfulness to all teachers and staff of the department of
biomedical engineering for their co-operation and support.

Last but not the least I thank all other and especially my classmates and my family members
who in one way or another helped me in the successful completion of this seminar.

VYSAKH S.

iii
 ABSTRACT

The latest generation of smartphones are increasingly viewed as handheld

computers rather than as phones, due to their powerful on-board computing
capability, capacious memories, large screens and open operating systems that
encourage application development. This paper provides a brief state-of-the-art
overview of health and healthcare smartphone apps (applications) on the market
today, including emerging trends and market uptake. Platforms available today
include Android, Apple iOS, RIM BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows (Windows Mobile
6.x and the emerging Windows Phone 7 platform). The paper covers apps targeting
both laypersons/patients and healthcare professionals in various scenarios, e.g.,
health, fitness and lifestyle education and management apps; ambient assisted living
apps; continuing professional education tools; and apps for public health surveillance.
Among the surveyed apps are those assisting in chronic disease management,
whether as standalone apps or part of a BAN (Body Area Network) and remote
server configuration. We describe in detail the development of a smartphone app
within eCAALYX (Enhanced Complete Ambient Assisted Living Experiment, 2009-
2012), an EU-funded project for older people with multiple chronic conditions. The
eCAALYX Android smartphone app receives input from a BAN (a patient-wearable
smart garment with wireless health sensors) and the GPS (Global Positioning System)
location sensor in the smartphone, and communicates over the Internet with a
remote server accessible by healthcare professionals who are in charge of the
remote monitoring and management of the older patient with multiple chronic
conditions. Finally, we briefly discuss barriers to adoption of health and healthcare
smartphone apps (e.g., cost, network bandwidth and battery power efficiency,
usability, privacy issues, etc.), as well as some workarounds to mitigate those barriers.

iv
 CONTENTS

SL NO TOPIC PAGE NO

1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………01

2. INFLUENCE OF SMARTPHONES IN HEALTHCARE……...…………………....02

2.1 SMARTPHONE REVOLUTION IN HEALTHCARE…...…….……..........02

2.1.1 THE DIGITAL ERA……………………………………………...03

2.2 CHANGES IN HEALTHCARE……………………………………………04

2.2.1 MONITORING HEALTH FROM A DISTANCE……………...04

2.2.2 IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE……………….….05

2.2.3 PAYMENTS………………………………………………….........05

2.2.4 HOME HEALTHCARE ACCESSIBILITTY………………......06

2.2.5 REPORTS………………………………………………………....06

2.2.6 ACCESS TO REPORTS…………………………………………06

2.2.7 CHOOSE YOUR DOCTOTR………………………………...…07

2.3 DATA COLLECTION……………………………………………….…….07

2.3.1 BODY AREA NETWORK…………………………………........08

2.3.2 GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM………………………........09

2.3.3 SMS…………………………………………………………….….10

2.4 SMARTPHONE APPS……………………………………………….…….11

2.4.1 COMMONLY USED HEALTHCARE APPS………….….…....11

2.4.2 ECAALYX……………………………………………………........14

2.4.3 AMBIENT ASSISTED LIVING………………………………….15

3.CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..…….16

v
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIG.NO: NAME OF FIGURE PAGE

2.1 ECG ON A SMARTPHONE……………………………………………………02

2.2 EXAMINATION WITH CAMERA AND FLASH…………………….………03

2.3 DIGITAL APPOINTMENT WITH DOCTOR…………………………..……..05

2.4 MEDICAL REPORTS IN A TABLET ……………………………….……...06

2.5 WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORK……………………………………….08

2.6 GENERIS APP INTERFACE…………………………………………………..12

2.7 ECAALYX MOBILE APPLICATION………………………………….……...14

vi
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Although the mobile phone has been widely used for several decades, smartphones are
a more recent advance. They are mobile phones that offer not only the standard facilities such
as voice and text communication, but also advanced computing and communication
capability, including, for example, Internet access and geo-positioning systems.
In comparison to earlier mobile phones, smartphones generally also have larger, higher
resolution display screens. Most of the newer generation of smartphones also incorporate
other features such as on-board personal management tools, high quality cameras and
recording devices.

Recently, Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android touch screen devices

have increased smartphone ownership. They are popular because of their intuitive and
tactile graphical user interfaces and natural gesture control. The latest generation of
smartphones are increasingly viewed as handheld computers rather than as phones,
due to their powerful on-board computing capability, capacious memories, large
screens and open operating systems that encourage application development. The
potential for the creation of simple and easy to download apps for smartphones has
created a vibrant new industry. There is now an app for just about every social, entertainment
and educational requirement.

Smartphones have now achieved such a pervasive presence in society that users find
it easy to self-organise themselves across large geographical areas. Many have
adopted a culture where they are ‘always connected’ to their peer groups, communities
of practice and information. The mobile phone provides an essential ‘any time,
any place’ portal into the entire world wide web of knowledge. Such continuous and
pervasive social connectivity has important implications for society, and holds a lot of
potential in particular for use in education, healthcare and medicine.

1
 CHAPTER 2

INFLUENCE OF SMARTPHONES IN HEALTHCARE

Fig2.1: ECG on a smartphone

2.1 SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS IN HEALTHCARE

It is clear that the potential for mobile communication to transform healthcare and
clinical intervention in the community is tremendous. Several previous studies have
evaluated the use of mobile phones to support healthcare and public health interventions,
notably in the collection and collation of data for healthcare research, and
as used in support of medical and healthcare education and clinical practice in the
community. Some studies have highlighted the successful use of mobile phones to
support telemedicine and remote healthcare in developing nations, with examples
including their use in off-site medical diagnosis and as information support in the
treatment of HIV care in difficult to reach rural areas

Studies assessing specific functionalities of smartphones have recently featured in the

literature, including an examination of the use of on-board digital diaries in symptom
research, the use of short message service (SMS) text in the management of behaviour
change, in sexual health education, and to improve patients’ adherence to antiretroviral
treatment. One study compared the use of mobile phone records

2
against traditional paper based records in controlled drug trials. Significant economic
benefits have also been reported where mobile communication is employed in the provision
of remote healthcare advice and telemedicine.

2.1.1 THE DIGITAL ERA

Fig 2.2: Examination with camera and flash

Diagnosing illness, using wearables and ingestible sensors, all these are harnessing the power
of mobile apps to improve patient treatment.

Now that we have entered the digital era, we have become more attached to our smart
devices. Our smartphones have become such an integral part of our lives that we continue to
rely on them in order to manage our schedules, organize our work and business processes,
stay informed and connected through social networks, and booking doctor appointments and
healthcare check-ups, and what not? Innovations in healthcare have led app development to
become both a necessity as well as a luxury.

The healthcare industry has witnessed enormous transformation due to technological

advancement and interference. In the past few years, we can clearly see the role mobile app
development has played in the transformation of the healthcare sector. The Covid-19

3
pandemic is not over yet and the healthcare mobile apps have paved their way towards
tremendous growth during such a crisis, changing the perception of the health industry
amongst people globally.

In 2019, the global digital healthcare market was worth 106 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected
to grow at a CAGR of 28.5 percent from 2020 to 2026, further increasing the size of the
market by six-fold! By 2026, the digital health market will amount to nearly 640 billion U.S.
dollars.

With digitization, the healthcare industry has improved its patient-centred approach and is
maintaining patients’ health while providing a smooth user experience through mobile app
solutions. Whether it is shopping for medical products, looking up a healthy lifestyle, or
finding qualified doctors – these apps have it all! The development of healthcare apps has
played an integral role in empowering patients with quick information.

With the help of healthcare web application development, you can find a doctor, book an
appointment and view all your medical test reports from the comfort of your home. Due to
the on-going global pandemic, people were also able to video call their doctors and
nutritionists to discuss health issues online. People also feel at ease by using healthy lifestyle
apps and health monitoring apps to keep themselves in check regularly. There is no denying
the fact that healthcare mobile apps for patients are a blessing.

Mobile applications not only help patients but also allow doctors to gather and store personal
health data in a hassle-free manner. Using healthcare mobile apps for patients, they can
directly submit their insurance cards and other information to mobile apps and it helps
healthcare professionals to reduce errors in their paperwork.

2.2 CHANGES IN HEALTHCARE

2.2.1 MONITORING HEALTH FROM A DISTANCE

In the digital healthcare era, we have fitness bands that are connected to our smartphones via
a health app in order to keep track of one’s activities like the number of steps taken while
walking or running, sleep timings, and meals taken (diet check), and so on. Moreover, the
wearable technology has revolutionized healthcare by supporting patients and doctors in their

4
critical activities like providing real-time access to their electronic health records, providing
patient history, and so on.

Also, many devices are present that are used to indicate different body conditions like
measuring blood pressure level, and monitoring heart rate and glucose level, amongst others.

2.2.2 IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE

Fig 2.3: Digital appointment with doctor

Gone are the days when one had to make physical visits in order to book an appointment with
the doctor. Healthcare mobile app services in the medical sector have replaced physical visits
with digital visits. In such an era of healthcare digitization and the use of mobile apps,
patients can easily find doctors within their reach and book an appointment on the spot. There
are also interactive mobile apps that allow patients to ask general health questions from
doctors who are available 24/7 without the need of booking appointments.

For instance, Doctor on Demand is a popular mobile app that allows patients to find a doctor
in urgency and book appointments at their convenience.

2.2.3 PAYMENTS

Easy and efficient payments of the bills have to be one of the key advantages of app
development in healthcare. Traditionally, people had to wait in a long queue for hours to
make the payment. Mobile technology in healthcare has highly secured payment methods that
allow us to make instant payments for ourselves and for our loved ones.

5
2.2.4 HOME HEALTHCARE ACCESSIBILITY

Technology has been at the center stage to revolutionize home healthcare services. Medical
equipment, medicines, and other healthcare requirements in the industry are determined with
the help of real-time technology.

With the help of healthcare mobile apps, patients can choose home healthcare. Not only
elderly people can benefit from this but also people with different conditions like individuals
who have special needs or a disability, someone who is aging and needs help to live
independently, people recovering from a medical setback, or suffering from chronic diseases,
etc.

2.2.5 REPORTS

Doctors are human too and can make a wrong judgment but the consequences are much more
lethal. Thanks to the application of machine-learning and data analytics in healthcare, such
cases of wrong diagnosis have reduced. With the help of machine accuracy and efficiency,
correct reports can be provided to the patient.

2.2.6 ACCESS TO MEDICAL REPORTS

Fig 2.4: Medical reports in a tablet

It is due to healthcare app features that the patient and the doctor can access the medical
reports anytime, anywhere. In situations when a patient hops from one healthcare
professional to another, this data can be accessed to make quick medical decisions.

For instance, Healthe People is a medical app for doctors and patients that allow users to
store and monitor all their healthcare apps and devices’ data on a single platform. It also
allows users to find medical caregivers for their friends.

6
2.2.7 CHOOSE YOUR DOCTOR

Thanks to custom app development for healthcare, patients have the access to all the
information they need in order to finalize a doctor for their treatment. From ratings, cost, and
expertise to other patients’ reviews and experiences, you can look up everything and make a
well-informed decision for yourself.

2.3 DATA COLLECTION

Mobile phones offer new opportunities to efficiently and interactively collect real-time data
from patients with acute illnesses, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs). One of the main
benefits of using mobile data collection methods is automated data upload, which can reduce
the chance of data loss, an issue when using other data collection methods such as paper-
based surveys.

Paper-based surveys have been the standard for collecting patient data in health research.
This data collection method is limited due to issues related to data entry and storage costs.
Mobile phones offer new opportunities to collect real-time data in a much more efficient and
interactive way including automated data upload without data loss, which can be an issue
when using other data collection methods. Mobile phones have already been used
successfully in the past in the development of health and behavioural change interventions.
Examples include in the areas of diabetes self-management, weight loss, physical activity,
smoking cessation, and medication adherence.

7
2.3.1 BODY AREA NETWORK

Fig 2.5: Wireless body area network

A body area network (BAN), also referred to as a wireless body area network (WBAN) or a
body sensor network (BSN) or a medical body area network (MBAN), is a wireless network
of wearable computing devices. BAN devices may be embedded inside the body as implants,
may be surface-mounted on the body in a fixed position, or may be accompanied devices
which humans can carry in different positions, such as in clothes pockets, by hand, or in
various bags. While there is a trend towards the miniaturization of devices, in particular, body
area networks consist of several miniaturized body sensor units (BSUs) together with a single
body central unit (BCU), larger decimeter (tab and pad) sized smart devices still play an
important role in terms of acting as a data hub or data gateway and providing a user interface
to view and manage BAN applications, in-situ. The development of WBAN technology
started around 1995 around the idea of using wireless personal area network (WPAN)
technologies to implement communications on, near, and around the human body. About six
years later, the term "BAN" came to refer to systems where communication is entirely within,
on, and in the immediate proximity of a human body. A WBAN system can use WPAN
wireless technologies as gateways to reach longer ranges. Through gateway devices, it is
possible to connect the wearable devices on the human body to the internet. This way,
medical professionals can access patient data online using the internet independent of the
patient location.

8
The rapid growth in physiological sensors, low-power integrated circuits, and wireless
communication has enabled a new generation of wireless sensor networks, now used for
purposes such as monitoring traffic, crops, infrastructure, and health. The body area network
field is an interdisciplinary area which could allow inexpensive and continuous health
monitoring with real-time updates of medical records through the Internet. A number of
intelligent physiological sensors can be integrated into a wearable wireless body area
network, which can be used for computer-assisted rehabilitation or early detection of medical
conditions. This area relies on the feasibility of implanting very small biosensors inside the
human body that are comfortable and that don't impair normal activities. The implanted
sensors in the human body will collect various physiological changes in order to monitor the
patient's health status no matter their location. The information will be transmitted wirelessly
to an external processing unit. This device will instantly transmit all information in real time
to the doctors throughout the world. If an emergency is detected, the physicians will
immediately inform the patient through the computer system by sending appropriate
messages or alarms. Currently, the level of information provided and energy resources
capable of powering the sensors are limiting. While the technology is still in its primitive
stage it is being widely researched and once adopted, is expected to be a breakthrough
invention in healthcare, leading to concepts like telemedicine and MHealth becoming real.

2.3.2 GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)

The use of GPS devices in health research is increasingly popular. There are currently no
best-practice guidelines for collecting, processing, and analysing GPS data. The
standardization of data collection and processing procedures will improve data quality, allow
more-meaningful comparisons across studies and populations, and advance this fıeld more
rapidly. The relationship between where you live and health has long been recognized. In the
past decade, rapid progress has been made in understanding the role of neighbourhoods in
obesity prevention, with much of the research focusing on the relationships be-tween the built
environment around a residential address and physical activity. Some studies have also
considered other locations of importance such as environments around schools and
workplaces. Focusing on the environment around static address points has several drawbacks.
Health behaviours occur in multiple locations and along routes to destinations. Focusing on
one location, such as residential address, underestimates the exposure to multiple
environments. Further, health behaviours are usually assessed in an aggregate manner, for
example, total physical activity across the day.

9
2.3.3 SMS

SMS is a method for sending text messages between mobile devices. The common use of text
messaging is person-to-person, from one mobile phone to another (or multiple) mobile
phone(s). However, it is also possible to send bulk messages to a number of recipients using
an SMS software application. SMS is a method for sending text messages between mobile
devices. The common use of text messaging is person-to-person, from one mobile phone to
another (or multiple) mobile phone(s). However, it is also possible to send bulk messages to a
number of recipients using an SMS software application. The focus of this toolkit is on the
implementation considerations for using and evaluating text messaging as a health care
intervention, in contrast to personal text messaging applications. SMS Messaging
Components Large-scale text messaging programs require specialized software applications
and services to handle message content and delivery scheduling, and message routing
services to deliver messages via multiple cellular network carriers. SMS messaging
application software supports scripting, scheduling, replying, and routing to an SMS gateway
based on pre-configured algorithms, thus eliminating the need for an individual to send,
monitor, and respond to each text. In this process, a sender uses an SMS messaging
application to enter necessary data(message script, message sending schedule, messaging
algorithms or logic, etc.) An SMS gateway (also known as SMS provider, aggregator, or
messaging server) encodes and routes text messages according to the specific requirements of
the recipient’s wireless network operator or carrier. Network operators have SMS centers
(SMSC) that forward the messages to recipients’ mobile phones (see figure below). SMS
responses are routed back through the same channels.

Opportunities for research in mHealth and text messaging are growing as funding agencies
offer increasing support for research on the use of technological communication in
healthcare. The past success and future potential of text messaging to reach the right audience
at the right time with the right message at a minimal cost has caught the attention of the
health research community.1As of 2012, there were 321.7 million wireless subscriptions
within the U.S., and the number of text messages sent monthly during that year amounted to
184.3 billion.2 Because of its accessibility and ubiquity, text messaging is a cost-effective
option with the abilities to reach a large audience, support provider-patient communication,
deliver health information and education, and collect patient data.

10
2.4 SMARTPHONE APPS

Mobile healthcare apps are revolutionizing the healthcare ecosystem by improving

communication, efficiency, and quality of the service. Some reports predict that the mobile
health industry will reach a total market size of more than 189 billion US dollars by 2025.

Healthcare apps are a blessing to the medical industry. Not only doctors and patients, but
hospital staff and pharmacists can also reap the benefits of this technological marvel. Mobile
healthcare apps can be used for online consultation, diagnosis, appointments, and medical
supply delivery. Supported by smartphones and tablet devices, they enable medical and
public health practices with new & innovative ways to deliver healthcare services outside
traditional care settings. Further, they supposedly are a potential resource to enhance the
health care professionals’ productivity and improve patient health outcomes.

2.4.1 COMMONLY USED HEALTHCARE APPS

➢ HEALTH TAP
The platform is one of the most outstanding mhealth applications examples. The
application offers you answer to millions and millions of questions from real doctors
spanning various topics.
The app can be used to get by posting it on the platform. A doctor will respond within
24 hours. It also facilitates scheduled live consultations with doctors, dentists, and
psychologists to view your lab results and manage your prescriptions.

➢ WEBMD

One of the greatest examples of healthcare application in India and across the
globe is WebMD. It provides convenient healthcare information, offers a symptom
checker, provides medical reminders, and shows a list of doctors across a particular
region. Users can also learn about certain prescriptions, drug effects, research
treatments, and diagnosis as well. Today, more and more people are using WebMD to
get proper information about different medical needs.

11
➢ GENERIS

Fig2.6: Generis app interface

It is one of those mobile healthcare applications which has been developed

specifically for diabetes patients. Generis provides amazing information about
diabetes and much more.
It connects people with others who might have healthcare supplies, blood tests, and
injections. Users also get health tips, customized plans according to user goals, and
community support for the disease.
It is a mobile healthcare app that helps people with diabetes and offers impressive
capabilities to users.

➢ POCKET PHARMACIST
One of the top health care examples in 2022 is Pocket Pharmacist. It is an application
that provides instructions on the treatment of various illnesses based on the
symptoms. In addition, the application offers medical conditions, disease information,
causes, and much more to patients.
The healthcare app is developed by a pharmacist who has 10 years of experience in
the medical industry. It also offers do’s and don’ts of nutritional supplements.

12
➢ TELADOC
What happens when patients need a specialist in certain diseases? Teladoc is an
application that provides specialists for particular diseases and ailments. The
application enables users to set up an appointment and then take the meeting via an
online call.
Teladoc is one of the many examples of mobile health technology that provides 24×7
application support to enable users to get a second opinion. In addition, they can also
create and update their medical history so that the application offers the right and
personalized suggestions to every patient.

➢ MEDISAFE PILL MINDER

It is an application that is among the examples of technology in healthcare. The
platform helps people stay on track with their medications.
Medisafe Pill Minder comes with doctor visit management and appointment alert
features. In addition, there are health measurement trackers that provide a complete
assessment of the prescription and ensure that the users stay on top of their daily dose
of medication. A subscription also provides ad-free access to the app for all kinds of
reminders and medication tracking.

➢ APPLE HEALTH
The most prominent example of healthcare technology is this product by Apple. It has
a complete tracker for measuring all the activities and health of the user.
It monitors sleep, food, activity, heart rate (connected with IoT devices), and other
things that clearly assess the user’s health data. The patient can connect this mhealth
data with other applications and ensure they achieve the best measurements. As a
result, Apple Health is one of the best healthcare application examples that patients
can use to understand their health better.

13
2.4.2 ECAALYX

Fig2.7: eCAALYX Mobile Application

The eCAALYX Mobile Application is being developed under the scope of the
eCAALYX EU-funded project (Enhanced Complete Ambient Assisted Living
Experiment,2009-2012; [29,30]), which aims at building a remote monitoring system
targeting older people with multiple chronic diseases. Patients, carers and clinicians’
involvement is extensive throughout the prototype design, deployment and testing,
and clinical trial phases of the project.
The main functionality of the eCAALYX Mobile Platform is to act as a seamless
“informed” intermediary between the wearable health sensors (in a ‘smart garment’)
used by the older person and the health professionals’ Internet site, by reporting to the
latter (but also to the patients) alerts and measurements obtained from sensors and the
geographic location (via smartphone GPS) of the user. Addition-ally, the mobile
platform is also able to reason with the raw sensor data to identify higher level
information, including easy-to-detect anomalies such as tachycardia and signs of
respiratory infections, based on established medical knowledge. A user inter-face is
also provided, which allows the user to evaluate the most recent medical details
obtained from sensors, perform new measurements, and communicate with the
caretakers.

14
2.4.3 AMBIENT ASSISTED LIVING

In the last decade, smart environments have found wide application in several
contexts, such as domotic, education, rehabilitation, assistance, and so on. New
technological devices pro-vide more specific tools and support for the rehabilitation
of people with impairment. In the context of home automation, the deployment of
new technologies can improve the quality of daily life, provide easy access to many
functions remotely, or allow the use of natural interfaces, such as gestures and voice,
in order to control lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances
Contextually, a new need has recently emerged: as the population ages, new policies,
systems, and technologies for supporting healthy aging are needed. Aging leads to
gradual physical decay, which increases the dependency on other people.
In order to promote active and healthy ageing, and to permit people to live
independently for longer. Active Assisted Living (AAL) technologies can intervene to
help elderly people in the different stages of aging. Indeed, AAL is intended to
develop innovation in order to keep people connected, healthy, active, and happy into
their old age. It concerns the development of products and services that make a real
difference to people’s lives, for those who face some of the challenges of ageing and
those who care for older people who need help. In recent years, a growing body of
literature has examined the state of the art of AAL domain by different points of view.

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) involves the use of devices and ways to ensure that
the older persons in the home stay safe and are able to age in place. It includes smart
devices, wireless networks, software application, computer, and medical sensors.
These technologies make aging in place possible. AAL makes lives easier and to
some extent, self-dependent. The methods and techniques used in AAL are user-
centric and are integrated into the living environment of the individuals. For older
adults, it is a boon as it helps in the prevention, curing and enhancing their wellness.
According to the requirements of the individuals, the technology gets adapted but the
reverse doesn’t happen. Not only the older people but also normal humans can also
make use of Ambient Assisted Living for increasing the quality of life. Even the
doctors, nurses, and everyone in a family can find this useful as it improves
communication and facilitates social interaction.

15
 CHAPTER 3

CONCLUSION

It is clear from their rapid proliferation and deep penetration into society, that there
are significant opportunities to exploit the potential of smartphones in healthcare.
Mobile health (m-health) applications are on the rise, with many clinicians and allied
health workers already adopting smartphones successfully in a diverse range of practices.
Patients too are accessing health information, actively participating in their own
care (participatory healthcare), and maintaining contact with their healthcare providers
through smartphones. Chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus and cardio-
vascular disease have in particular always been perceived as a special ‘niche market’ for
smartphone apps .Some commentators suggest that the natural progression for healthcare is to
go mobile, because it is information intensive and smartphones can offer a convenient
solution. Smartphones are useful to keep clinicians up to date with the latest medical
techniques, and it is easy and cost effective to communicate updates, advice and guidelines to
a distributed community of practice in this way. As has also been demon-
started, mobile phones are useful for monitoring and diagnosing health conditions
when clinicians are a distance from their patients. Further, with the Internet playing an
increasing role in medical education it is likely that for itinerant health workers
the most important access portal to this information will be handheld devices such as
smartphones. Indeed, Georgetown Medical School in the USA, for example, is now
requiring every medical student to have an iPhone and surgeons are finding the device (and
its apps) very useful in improving their diagnostic skills and education.
Smartphones are therefore useful to the medical and health related professions because
they are agile, handheld, easy to use and can be used on the move.

Later adopters of new technologies may not use them in the same way as early
adopters. Developers of new smartphone health apps need to look ‘at the margin’, i.e., how
the latest group of adopters are using smartphones and how the next group of new
users may use it. Although there are hundreds of smartphone apps at the moment, the
successful ones are, currently, likely to be for younger and healthier populations. The

16
adoption of smartphones by older people and people with chronic disease will come
with time, but also as the relative cost comes down, as apps become easier to use, as
there is a greater awareness of what smartphones can do, with the establishment of
more ‘community knowledge’ to deal with the complexity of the new technology [67],
and perhaps with apps moved to dedicated devices tailored for the specific needs of
particular user groups and applications. These changes will almost certainly happen,
but probably not as quickly as producers may predict. Producers may need patience
and to put more effort into making the technology easier and cheaper to use for all

17
 REFERENCES

1. https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-
019-
45231#:~:text=The%20reasons%20for%20use%20of,source%20of%2
0patients%20education%20materials
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7708699/
3. https://mobius.md/2021/12/20/smartphones-in-healthcare-an-
introduction/
4. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10010130
5. https://www.ringcentral.com/gb/en/blog/6-ways-mobile-technology-
is-impacting-healthcare/

18