My Uni Project title: Smartphones in Medical Care – how do you think these new technologies alter the delivery of health care?

As you may or may not know, outside of Nokia Blogging, I’m a medical student. After my final exam for this academic year, I’ll be going into my SSC (Student Selected Component) project. Being the tech/nokia geek that I am, my top choice was, “How will new technologies alter the delivery of health care?” which is led by possibly one of the best consultant/teaching staff at the hospital. Just yesterday we discussed what angle I would go to and I was so ecstatic to get the approval to pursue smartphones.

FFC 920, idstagram (now Instance) filter :p

Surprisingly enough, they’re a lot more relevant than you might think. The smartphone sector is the fastest growing in the industry and has already made quite an impact on health care but we have only just scratched the surface, especially regarding where the future is and could be headed. A few years ago now I was at at the OpenMobile Summit with the WOMWorld/Nokia Crew. One of the talks I attended discussed how mobile was changing healthcare, e.g. avoiding hospital admittance, reducing hospital costs for patients. That was only in 2010 and so much has changed already in the way we use smartphones (and tablets) in healthcare. My University (Manchester) is apparently one of if not the first University to trial the use of tablets (you can guess which one) for their medical students – eco wise, cuts down on the paper trail; useful perhaps for learning with the various apps. Likewise for phones.

http://mynokiablog.com/2010/05/27/openmobile-summit-day-1-photos-to-be-updated/

I’ve spoken about it before now and again when talking about Nokia’s potential role here, specifically regarding the studies being undertaken at Nokia Research Centre (nano sensors that can constantly monitor your vitals, your smartphone can keep recordings and suggest places for you to go, food for you to buy, health professionals to go and see etc – that’s just one aspect).

This isn’t going to be a full blown article, but the starting point of my project. I’d like to get some ideas from you guys on where smartphones will change the delivery of health care?

What have you experienced at the moment? Are you a health professional? How do you use your smartphone? Searching medical evidence? Apps for healthcare guidelines? Monitoring apps? How will smartphones change? Bigger phablets can perhaps eliminate the need for a separate tablet? Perhaps even more sensors?

Hopefully you guys can follow me/interact whilst I do my research project. I’d like to get in touch with some folks from Nokia/Nokia Research Centre, at the very least to get some insights from them. If you have suggestions on areas to cover, feel free to chip in :).

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Category: Nokia