Believe it or not, we have come to a post-PC era wherein the world seeks for mobile stability. This mobility offers a media-rich context in business, advertising, finance, engineering, etc. This media is so profound that it even encompasses the health sector. If you’ve been living under the rock lately, you may be surprised to know that these devices are major runners for e-health applications.
E-Health and M-Health.
E-Health and M-Health.
For the uninitiated, e-Health or electronic health apps are software applications that provide tools, processes and communication means as an alternative to practical medicine. While the M-Health is an E-Health’s integral part which covers network computing, medical sensors and communication technologies within healthcare. This sector is commonly found in touch devices such as smart phones, tablets, phablets and the like. Mobile computing, mobile sensor and communications technology for health is also considered as m-health.
The App Ecosystem
Today, as the hardware capacity of smart mobile devices improve, the increase in mobile health applications sprout in mobile platforms like Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc. In these platforms, Apple and Android have the most content-rich ecosystem to host the emerging m-Health applications with each market filled with more or less a million of apps. In other platforms, it is clear that m-health apps still had plenty of room to grow to take full advantage.
iOS and Android apps draw a large number of potential downloads. M-health apps are categorized into different classes depending on their core functionality. Base on the iOS downloads, Medical Information Reference apps comprise 34 percent of downloaded m-health apps. It is then followed by Educational Tools which comprise the 24 percent of the app class. Drug or Information Database completes the top 3 of the m-health apps. These apps are quite bestsellers in all ecosystems nowadays since they become better alternatives for medical sessions and the like.
Summary
Mobile computing devices give ample power to offer a content-rich and context-aware features that are essential parts of m-health applications. They offer the best sensors that could be used to track several health conditions in human’s system. Plus, the fact that they come handy makes them reliable sources of instant health awareness. Smart devices is evolving, and with these few sensors added to this year’s flagship devices (like humidity and pressure sensors), the growth of mobile health apps may surge eventually. It’s clear that m-health apps have great potentials in providing instant source of healthcare and health education for smart phone users.
