Mobile Computing and Social Networking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mobile Computing and Social Networking - Essay Example For the same reason, health industry has always been a hot spot for research and development thereby attracting lots of investment and renovation. Monitoring of Patient Vital Signs Technology has revolutionized the health care sector to such an extent that one’s blood pressure, blood sugar levels, oxygen levels or respiratory levels all can be measured using mobile technology. Thus the perils of a patient travelling to a doctor’s office for these physiological states to be tested, manual documentation of the readings by a nurse or a clinician and the occurrence of errors while recording the readings etc can be avoided. Above all the greatest advantage is saving the most valuable resource- time. A scenario resembling a science fiction movie where sensors implanted under ones skin detects ones blood sugar level and alerts the doctor is not very far if technological explosion happens at this pace. Today’s technology has made patient’s care very effective. Sma rt phones and broad band enabled devices has allowed patients to do their own monitoring of vital signs and body functions and upload them to their medical provider’s clinical servers. Videoconferencing with their doctor via phones is possible. Not only the patients but also the hospitals are benefitted by the technology. Devices like ECG machines, ventilators, oxygen sensors, blood pressure sensors are connected to the hospital server that records and transmits to the doctor or the nurse to ensure the best care possible. As Shahriyar, Bari, Kundu, Ahamed and Akbar (2010) point out, the use of bio sensor based mobile monitoring system collects data from the patients, mines the data, predicts the patient’s health status, and provides feed back through their mobile phones. So they can access their health information anywhere and anytime. This monitoring system is called Intelligent Mobile Health Monitoring System (pp. 5-6). Advantages As Smith (2011) points out, enhanced patient doctor interaction, accessibility of health care to geographically remote patient, greater exchange of information, increased accuracy of patient records, saving time with diagnosis and treatment of illness, freedom of patience from smoldering hospital rooms and cumbersome medical devices are some of the advantages of monitoring vital signs using mobile computing technology. Wireless networking enables the transmission of signals from the monitor of an ambulance to the emergency room so that the staff is alert to treat the patient as soon as they arrive. The use of mobile technology informs the doctor about the early symptoms of his patients before acute attacks occurs. This is a boon to patients who are reserved in nature as they can express their problems without face to face interaction with the doctor. Doctors also can provide more assistance regarding the treatment and medication which otherwise would have been shortened due to lack of time. Doctors are benefitted in a way that they can focus more on priority tasks. These technologies make the health care system personalized and thereby improve its quality. Disadvantages This technological advancement may not be always an easy task for not so technologically savvy people, especially the older generation. The chances of going offline can cause unprecedented delay in communication between the doctor and the patient. There is a high risk of patient