The health-care industry increasingly is looking to wireless technologies to save money, reduce inefficiencies and cut down on human errors. And the wireless industry is scrambling to oblige.
Modern health-care providers and administrators in Europe are finding creative ways to use text messages to stay in touch with patients. The New Zealand Health Research Council is funding an Auckland University effort to send text and video messages to 18- to 24-year-olds warning of the dangers of smoking. New Zealand wireless users also can send a text message to a short code to receive information about illegal drugs. And patients of some doctors’ offices in the United Kingdom can opt to receive reminders of upcoming appointments on their phones via SMS-a practice that saves millions, according to Theo van der Ven, chairman of the European Institute for Healthcare Information.
“In England alone all it takes is something as simple as sending SMS appointment reminders to reduce the number of missed hospital and (general practitioner) appointments by 50 percent and generate savings of 500 million Euros ($640 million) a year,” van der Ven said in a prepared statement last week. “But SMS is not the only important tool for the health-care sector. Existing mobile telephone applications can also prevent heart attacks. We are on the threshold of a new era in which the mobile telephone forms an integral part of health care.”
Van der Ven, citing a recent study by the Imperial College in London, urged the Dutch government and health insurers to embrace mobile applications. Vodafone Group plc, which commissioned the report, unveiled the findings earlier this month in The Hague.
“We believe that mobile communications increases empowerment and convenience to patients and delivers overall better health outcomes,” echoed Guy Laurence, chief executive officer of Vodafone Netherlands. “Once basic mobile applications like SMS become accepted in health care, the potential is there for new technologies to further improve efficiency and service levels.”
While most U.S. physicians have yet to prod their patients with text-message reminders, American doctors more and more are leaning on their PDAs and smart phones to learn about diseases, check appropriate dosage amounts and find out whether patients’ insurance plans cover specific medications. A 2005 report by Forrester Research and the American Medical Association found more than half of U.S. physicians use a smart phone or PDA; other surveys indicate more than 60 percent use mobile devices on the job.
Industry analysts say mobile medical applications not only save time, but may save lives. A study released earlier this year by the Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston found roughly 34,000 U.S. hospital patients were at risk every year due to medical errors and adverse events. And a landmark 1999 report by the U.S. Institute of Medicine found that up to 100,000 patients die each year because of preventable mistakes.
Those figures were underscored last week with the horrifying news that three premature infants died in an Indianapolis hospital after receiving adult-sized doses of blood-thinning medication. The hospital is investigating the incident.
Two recent studies indicate wireless applications may help reduce such errors. A poll commissioned by Epocrates Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based software developer and conducted by Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, found 60 percent of physicians using the company’s drug reference reduced the likelihood of an adverse drug event or medication error three or more times a month. And nearly three-fourths of respondents in a poll conducted earlier this year by Skyscape Inc. said mobile devices allowed them to provide care more quickly, and 84 percent reported a decrease in potential errors thanks to the technology.
While each study was bankrolled by the respective software developer, both surveys indicate caregivers’ growing trust in mobile applications and the devices that support them.
“We’ve also done some studies internally (that have shown) about 90 percent of users reported avoiding at least one error per week,” said Michelle Snyder, vice president of online products for Epocrates. “And about 30 percent of physicians have reported saving at least 30 minutes a day,” enough time to see three more patients.
Epocrates claims roughly 150 employees and provides free mobile and Internet services as well as a $150-a-year premium offering for mobile users. The 7-year-old company boasts 525,000 users and has seen its subscriber base expand from tech-savvy early adopters to middle-aged physicians who would rather access information on-the-go-or perhaps with a patient-than have to sit at their computers dozens of times a day.
“In general, people have this perception of physicians as being technophobic,” Snyder said. “But this is really a technology that fits perfectly with how physicians work.”
