Mobile Healthcare Apps Give Control Back to Us

One of the things that patients have always wanted, but haven’t been able to get, is more control over their medical decisions . . . until today.

As experience shows medical apps are beginning to function in patients’ favor, and will ultimately change the future of healthcare forever.

Here is the overview of the main positive points of new generation medical apps:

Chapter 1: Medical Apps Will Help Patients Save Money

Doctor visits are expensive, but medical apps are here to change that significantly in the near future. Some of the changes are already happening right now. Basically, it’s now possible for your smartphone to replace an in-person doctor consultation, and your virtual appointment—with a real doctor, though—can be cheaper than some real-life doctor visits.

According to the last survey, the average cost of someone staying a night at the hospital in the USA or Germany is $3.300.

So, it is a way obvious how beneficial new medical apps are.

Chapter 2: The Doctor-Patient Relationship Will Be More Cooperative

Usually, if you have a problem (like a series of worrisome symptoms and/or signs in your body that won’t go away), you’ll call your physician, set up an appointment, and, if he thinks it’s something serious, he’ll refer you to a specialist in your plan’s network of coverage. If you’re a preferred provider organization (PPO) instead of a health maintenance organization (HMO), you can see your specialist directly if he’s part of your insurance company’s network.

Medical apps and platforms let you gain access to a service previously used only by the medical community. It empowers patients to research and finds potential causes for their symptoms, all with a few taps and swipes. Armed with this knowledge—let’s say you find a possible cause of your troubles—you can greatly speed up your consultation with your primary care physician or specialist by:

These apps:

• Save you time
• Save your doctor time
• Save you from longer pain and suffering

Chapter 3: Doctors’ Response to New App Technology

A recent MedPanel survey showed that just15% of all doctors in the U.S. are even discussing medical apps with their patients. Whether these doctors aren’t aware of the patient demand for these apps or simply don’t want to give up more control to patients is debatable. However, the silver lining even in this MedPanel survey is that 42% of those doctors surveyed admitted that their patients could benefit from the use of apps, which is an encouraging figure.