MOBILE HEALTHCARE SERVICES: POSSIBILITIES, PROBLEMS, PROSPECTS

Abstract

A whole variety of mobile technologies may be arbitrarily divided into several groups: prevention of diseases; determination of different diagnostic parameters; monitoring of the disease course and treatment effectiveness; consulting support, and telemedicine. Novel technologies offer much prospect for healthcare services, a possibility of improving the quality and availability of medical care. However, there are some problems and contraindications associated specifically with the inadequate participation of the medical professionals in the elaboration of applications, the low computer literacy of the population, and the high cost of such technologies. Nevertheless, the development of medical mobile concepts covers new areas, including the emergence of more complex programs for analyzing diagnostic information, the involvement of novel types of handheld devices and integration of the applications into the social networks. The paper considers the major possibilities of mobile medicine, problems, and prospects for its development.

Keywords

• mobile healthcare services
• electronic healthcare services
• mobile medical applications
• mobile applications on healthy lifestyle and sports management
• handheld diagnostic devices
• medical calculators
• health status telemonitoring
• consulting support programs
• mobile programs for patients
• telemedicine