The future of virtual care is mHealth – incorporating mobile devices into the delivery of virtual services. Recently, I wrote about how OTN is offering Personal Videoconferencing on a personal computer, so you don’t need to go to a room-based studio with a codec and a camera. Instead, you can download software onto a personal computer, and conduct the consultation over that device via the internet with other endpoints, whether it’s a Personal Videoconferencing device or a room-based studio. Eventually this functionality will be extended to any mobile device – tablet or smartphone.
Flexibility
Mobile devices that make use of videoconferencing will make virtual care far more flexible and ubiquitous. You’ll be able to do a videoconference anytime, anywhere, and easily. From your home, office, or even a restaurant – wherever it’s necessary to do one. This will also change the ability to integrate telemedicine services into health care professionals’ (HCPs) normal face-to-face workflow; one of the disruptions with telemedicine in the past has been the need for the consultant to go to a room-based studio at a certain time and leave their normal place of seeing patients. This had to be scheduled in advance and was fairly disruptive to the other work that they would normally do during the day. Soon, physicians and other HCPs can stay in their out-patient area wherever they’re seeing their patients – and if they need to do a videoconference for five or ten minutes, they could just do it over a mobile device. This definitely makes it a much more convenient technology to use.
Adoption
I think adoption of this type of mobile communication will be very rapid given the ubiquity of mobile devices. People are getting accustomed to using their mobile devices for doing research, shopping, finding out what movies are playing and where, what a restaurant’s menu is, etc. As people become more comfortable in their use of mobile devices for such things, it would be a seamless addition for them to start using it to access healthcare. Videoconferencing in this context could also be deployed for patients so that they can connect with their healthcare provider in their own home.
OTN will be embracing mobile as part of our next generation of virtual services, while ensuring that all privacy and security standards are met. The first wave where we’ll be looking at is the use of mHealth in emergency/trauma care. Trauma specialists, who are often located in large academic hospitals, will be able to provide regional and provincial service to physicians in other emergency departments that don’t have specialized trauma physicians. Stay tuned!
