Speculations on Apple’s iPhones’ role to play in the field of Medicine have risen due to the fact that Apple even as early as the 1990s had been on the road to influencing Medicine and until now have gotten a big part of the populace to use the internet and apps. The next question would have to be “could the iPhone also become a mainstream tool for medicine?”
Back in the 1990s, Newton platform was distributed to health workers and doctors as part of Apple’s aim to incorporate mobile phones into their practice and learning process but was only discontinued. Now Apple is on the move to bring back the initial objective and this time with the use of their newer iPhone and iPad. This is with the hope that these newer devices could play a bigger and better role in science and medicine.
It may be noted that Apple has devoted valuable stage time at its events to medical health applications in the forms of the demonstrations of blood pressure devices connecting to the iPhone through Bluetooth by developers and even glucose testing that is iPhone-enabled. With the latter, the meter transmits data to an iPhone via Bluetooth or dock connector after a patient pricks his finger.
One big and positive shift is perhaps in the fact that Apple’s portable devices are now lighter, cheaper and more powerful. Even the software apps that they can run are now actually more sophisticated especially with access to always-on wireless Internet. Several experts have placed their own views about the place of iPhone in today’s medicine and where it could possibly be in years to come. One of them, “mhealth” is still in the early stages when it comes to the field of mobile medicine however, but with hope of developing further.
With the breakthroughs in mobile phones it won’t be any surprise if healthcare soon become more “citizen-centered” as observed by Columbia University’s Director of Strategic Application of Mobile Technology for Public Health and Development, Patricia Mechael. It is anticipated that treatments will soon be tailored to individual patients – giving them the capacity to access health information, consult with physicians and even manage their own prevention. This will be possible through a range of mobile phones apps.
As of now, the most used apps are “faddy” wellness apps as noted by McKinsey & Co. Principal Lisa Ellis – including simple fitness and weight loss trackers. There may be of course around less of 5% apps that allow patients to manage chronic diseases. Ellis also predicts that there could be real growth in physician centered apps for both the iPad and iPhone in the future.
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