Essay Main body

With phones becoming a significant part of our daily lives, it is hard to find an area of society that has not yet been affected by them and healthcare is no exception with the introduction of mobile health applications. Nelissen (et al., 2018) defined mHealth as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices. It is said that their primary purpose is to achieve better health results, decrease spending on healthcare and improve user satisfaction (Alghamdi, et al., 2015). However, they are also immensely widespread.

Major advantage of mHealth apps is their ability to be accessed by a large amount of people as long as they own a smartphone. This is true even in hard to enter places such as an active battlefield. Severe pain treatment from battle related injuries is one of major obstacles that United States military health system faces (Clark, et al., 2007). However, due to harsh conditions, possible overwhelming influx of casualties and restricted supplier accessibility, conventional approaches to pain management may be insufficient (Clark, et al., 2007). Major progress in the mobile technology field and mHealth applications may help to remedy this problem (Wilson, et al., 2021). Mobile software such as the Bee Better app has the ability to monitor large groups of patients and manage their pain levels. What is more, using the data provided by the application would allow medical staff to focus on people with severe afflictions in cases where the supplies or personnel are in limited availability (Wilson, et al., 2021). Based on this information, the ubiquitousness of mobile apps is invaluable.

Nevertheless, there are valid concerns over the accuracy and safety of such applications. Generally, the staff of hospitals and clinics monitor and perform checks of patient’s health status such as blood pressure, temperature and weight. However, when mobile apps are introduced as intermediary between the patients and healthcare staff the results of health check might become warped since they are performed by ordinary people instead of health experts (Bowring, et al., 2012). What is more, apps are very easy to create as a consequence of software development platforms such as Appy Pie, which help to automate the app development process (Magrabi, et al., 2019). Therefore it encourages a person with minimal knowledge in software engineering to create apps, which causes great risk to data security and user privacy. In addition, since mHealth is a relatively new field the regulatory practices my not be up to date (Stec, et al., 2019), further increasing the risks of using such apps. Overall, these apps should be used with caution.

References

Alghamdi, M., Gashgari, H. and Househ, M., 2015. A systematic review of mobile health technology use in developing countries. Enabling Health Informatics Applications, pp.223-226.

Bowring, A.L., Peeters, A., Freak-Poli, R., Lim, M.S., Gouillou, M. and Hellard, M., 2012. Measuring the accuracy of self-reported height and weight in a community-based sample of young people. BMC medical research methodology, 12(1), pp.1-8.

Clark, M.E., Bair, M.J., Buckenmaier III, C.C., Gironda, R.J. and Walker, R.L., 2007. Pain and combat injuries in soldiers returning from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom: implications for research and practice. Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 44(2).

Magrabi, F., Habli, I., Sujan, M., Wong, D., Thimbleby, H., Baker, M. and Coiera, E., 2019. Why is it so difficult to govern mobile apps in healthcare?. BMJ Health & Care Informatics, 26(1).

Nelissen, H.E., Cremers, A.L., Okwor, T.J., Kool, S., van Leth, F., Brewster, L., Makinde, O., Gerrets, R., Hendriks, M.E., Schultsz, C. and Osibogun, A., 2018. Pharmacy-based hypertension care employing mHealth in Lagos, Nigeria–a mixed methods feasibility study. BMC health services research, 18(1), pp.1-14.

Stec, M.A., Arbour, M.W. and Hines, H.F., 2019. Client‐Centered Mobile Health Care Applications: Using the Mobile Application Rating Scale Instrument for Evidence‐Based Evaluation. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 64(3), pp.324-329.

Wilson, M.A., Fouts, B.L. and Brown, K.N., 2021. Development of a mobile application for acute pain management in US military healthcare. Applied Nursing Research, 58, p.151393.