Title: Mobile healthcare: the opportunities and challenges

Authors: Yao Y. Shieh, Fong Y. Tsai, Arash Anavim, Mason Shieh, Michael D. Wang Chao-Ming C. Lin

Addresses: Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive South, Route Œ, Orange, CA 92868, USA. ' Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive South, Route 140, Orange, CA 92868, USA. ' Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive South, Route 140, Orange, CA 92868, USA. ' School of Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. ' Department of Medicine – Hospitalist, University of California Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive South, Orange, CA 92868, USA. ' Fontana Department of Continuing Care, Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, 9961 Sierra Ave., Fontana, CA 92335, USA

Abstract: Mobile healthcare is an important extension of electronic healthcare. It enables the caregivers to have an ubiquitous and uninterrupted access to patients| clinical data and the latest medical knowledge; concurrently, it allows patients with chronic conditions to remain under constant observation without needing to be physically present at the clinic. The critical challenges to a full-scale implementation include establishing interoperability among electronic health records, developing better display technologies and security controls for mobile devices and developing smart algorithms to detect clinically significant events before notifying caregivers. As a consequence of mobile healthcare, new opportunities for physician-patient joint decision-making and personalised healthcare are beginning to take shape. Accompanying them are the challenges of mindset adjustment, the empowerment of patients with medical knowledge in everyday language and ensuring the confidentiality of patient data.

Keywords: e-healthcare; mobile healthcare; m-healthcare; wireless communications; interoperability; ubiquitous access; electronic health records; decision making; virtual retinal display; VRD; telehealth; security; electronic healthcare; personalised healthcare; medical knowledge.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2008.019793

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2008 Vol.4 No.2, pp.208 - 219

Published online: 31 Jul 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article