Special Focus: Diagnostic Applications: Smartphones Expected to Bring Diagnostics To the Patients’ Fingertips

Integrating the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets into clinical care, or mobile health (mHealth), has the potential to transform the practice of medicine, allowing for monitoring of remote patients and encouraging a significantly more active role for patients in their own health care. Experts envision mHealth will drive an evolution of the health care system that will include real-time, decentralized monitoring of chronic conditions, as well as the ability of patients to run remote diagnostics off of their mobile devices. Mobile applications that allow for better management of chronic conditions through the automatic logging and transmission of testing results to health care providers are already in use, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released its final guidance on the regulation of medical apps. This is a move the mHealth industry applauds, saying it adds needed clarity as to what apps are in fact medical devices and it should hasten development and adoption of mobile health apps, including those for diagnostic purposes. The Future of mHealth The potential of diagnostic apps is limited only by how well the data they generate are integrated into clinical workflow. Some experts envision a day where the combination […]