How Current mHealth Trends Are Improving Healthcare

Healthcare is undergoing a revolution right now. More institutions and stakeholders are embracing the many benefits that mHealth app development provides. As a result, patients are receiving better treatment than ever before.

Below, we examine the market outlook for mHealth as well as a few of our own endeavors that have made a big difference in improving patient outcomes.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

The term “mHealth” only appeared a few years ago. Yet, few other technological paradigms can match the rapid growth it’s experiencing today. Healthcare is shifting towards the adoption of technology at an unprecedented rate, and for good reason: whether it’s appointments, prescription refills, video chats, or emergency calls, mHealth allows for the seamless exchange of vital information.

In a recent survey, Physicians Practice, the largest circulated business publication in healthcare, found that three out of four of their readers believe mobile devices and mHealth are here to stay in today’s medical practice. 75.9% even said they utilize the advantages of mHealth in their own practices on a regular basis.

Other forecasts support this viewpoint. Business Consulting firm Grand View Research expects to see a colossal 44.2% compound annual growth for mHealth applications, resulting in the market possibly reaching a value of $111.8 billion by 2025. Similarly, the “Mobile Health (mHealth) App Market – Industry Trends, Opportunities and Forecasts to 2023” report projects the mHealth market to reach $102.35 billion by 2023.

mHealth has proven to be invaluable in every step of doctor-patient interaction. It offers avenues for more precise personalized treatment as well as effective and fast communication. To see this in action, read on; we’ll discuss some of our most recent projects in the mHealth space.

Improving Cardiovascular Emergency Treatment

Cardiovascular (CV) disease affects 84 million people in the United States alone and leads to 610,000 deaths per year. Despite its common occurrence, emergency protocols for handling this affliction can usually only be found on paper. As you can imagine, searching for a piece of paper is the last thing doctors should have to do while treating someone suffering from a cardiac arrest.

Mark Ebling, Patient Care Manager at the Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI), knew there needed to be a better way to access CV emergency protocols. He wanted the entire MHI network to have the latest treatment methods on tap. And with Dogtown Media as MHI’s app developer, he found the perfect solution.

We developed an intuitive cardiovascular emergency app that put the latest protocols in the palm of physicians’ hands. No more scrambling through piles of papers needed. And to avoid any lapses in communication, we also hard-coded the standardized protocols for offline use, so physicians in rural areas would be ready at a moment’s notice without the need for Internet connection.

This feature has been immensely beneficial according to Ebling: “A rural physician utilized a protocol within the app (could not find the paper version at their hospital) and successfully started treatment and transferred the patient (via the app) to us for emergent life-saving surgery.”The need for this app became readily apparent upon release. We expected a few hundred downloads from key physicians in the Minneapolis area. Since it became available, the app has garnered more than 4,000 downloads in seven countries and has already saved multiple lives!

A Simple (and Swift) Solution

The substantial demand for a cardiovascular emergency protocol app led Dogtown Media to create SwiftHealth, a mobile solution that brings the latest CV treatment methodologies to your fingertips. Our first in-house healthcare product, SwiftHealth is available anywhere and anytime, ensuring that physicians are ready to handle emergencies at a moment’s notice, regardless of signal strength or WiFi availability.

Of course, not all emergencies can be addressed right away. Similar to our MHI solution, SwiftHealth lets first responders and care providers refer patients to your CV service line’s intake with one click so he or she can get the life-saving care they need.

The app can be adapted to your brand while we maintain the technology underpinning it. This allows for easy incorporation and seamless scalability in any healthcare network.

The Growing Need for Innovation

mHealth offers a plethora of possibilities to improve healthcare in every facet. And healthcare providers and practitioners are finally starting to embrace these advantages.

Do you have an idea to enhance patient care, your network’s infrastructure, or any other aspect of healthcare? Don’t hesitate to contact us. Dogtown Media’s development headquarters are based in Los Angeles, but we work with enterprises and ambitious innovators around the world.

We’re extremely proud of the impact we’ve made so far in healthcare, but we know there’s still so much more to do. If you have an idea but don’t know where to begin, reach out anytime — if you can dream it, we can build it! We can’t wait to start working with you to build a better (and healthier) future.