Today’s smartphone is a camera, a GPS system, an e-reader, a game console and even a remote car starter. Why can’t it also be a blood glucose meter, X-ray viewer, stethoscope or diagnostic aid?
That’s the idea behind many of the 17,000 health-related mobile applications available in major app stores, with nearly half aimed at health care professionals. Research consultancy research-2guidance projects that 500 million smartphone users will have used a mobile health application by 2015. Today, 80 percent of doctors use smartphones and mobile medical apps in their everyday practice, according to an industry report from physician recruitment firm Jackson & Coker.
