Can cell phones help increase the quality of America’s health care while driving down cost? Or will the increase use of mobile phones raise concerns about risks they pose to the health and quality of life of Americans?
For example, a major health risk is using a cell phone while driving. A recent study of cell phone use while driving found it slowed down reaction time especially for people aged 50 to 80 years. This leads to more car accidents and therefore creates a big health care risk.
Another study using phone records to confirm the risk of a crash have found a fourfold increase in injury-producing crashes regardless of using hand-held versus hands-free phones.
And what kind of health risks do mobile phones have on the body?
One area of concern for health professionals is if the use of cell phones helps develop brain tumors. That has yet to be validated, but the National Academy of Sciences believes that the health issue should be studied further especially since the increase use of cell phones by children.
But one thing we know for certain is that cell phone technology is becoming a big boost for the health care industry. The overall impact of cell phone use on personal health are self-evident, for example, it makes it easier for medical professionals and patients to talk to each other. And because only a single user often uses cell phones, delivering sensitive medical information is kosher, such sending results from a medical test or reminder of an appointment.
And now health-related applications for cell phones are emerging. For example, some cell phone health applications help users track their behaviors related to weigh management. Behaviors such as calorie counting can be supported by software on the phone, reminders for special dietary needs can be preset and then sent to the user during the day, and the cell phone camera can be used to take a picture of a meal and send it to a medical dietician who uses it to interpret meal content and make recommendations about future diet behavior. Other health related applications provide support for those recovering from drug or alcohol addiction.
A study about the effectiveness of cell phone-based health care applications on children with type 1 diabetes produced favorable changes in diabetes self-efficacy and adherence to treatment, and achieved a high level of satisfaction among the participants.
And other health benefits come with Bluetooth capabilities, which can facilitate up-linking of home blood pressure monitor readings to the user’s medical doctor with subsequent follow-up based on these readings.
The technology that underlies cell phones is becoming better and cheaper. The evidence that cell phones help increase the quality of health care is emerging. The growing use of mobile phones provides an opportunity to increase the quality of health care.
