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The doctor will see you on your smartphone 0

It’s time to get in touch with your doctor. You don’t feel well. It’s time for an annual checkup or a follow-up visit. Or maybe you just have a medical question.

Chances are you have the family physician’s phone number on a card in your wallet, the one reminding you of your next appointment.

Or you can use the app on your smartphone or tablet to contact the office.

The ability to locate a doctor, book an appointment and attend to your personal health care needs is right in the palm of your hand, as an app for Apple or Android devices. One that comes to mind is Zoc Doc, launched in 2011 for iOS and now available on Android. Zoc Doc helps you to search for a doctor by specialty, browse doctor search results like credentials, view appointment calendars in real time and book one for an available date instantly.

If you just have a medical question and can’t wait, here’s even an app that lets you connect with a physician right on your mobile device. It’s a consultation without the waiting room.

Doctor on Demand allows a patient to speak with a licensed physician on audio or video through a smartphone, iPhone or tablet. The app is useful to people with non-emergency issues who have medical questions like seeking a referral or explaining symptoms. The participating doctors are drawn from a network affiliated with independent medical practices throughout the United States.

Doctor on Demand is a free app for iOS and Android, but the fee to speak with a doctor is $40, about the cost of a copayment to see a specialist.

Physicians and their Mobile Devices 0

Gone are the days where you would see a hospital physician huddled in a report room somewhere madly fingering through volumes of texts and journals looking for information on a particular diagnosis or medication.

Today, you’re more likely to see a physician (not only in the hospital, but in the family doctor offices and dental offices) madly tapping away on an iPad or iPhone.

The availability and sheer number of medical apps in the various app stores have soared in the past few years, thanks to the popularity, portability and storage capacity of the smart mobile devices of today. A visit online to the Apple AppStore as an example will make this quite apparent as you browse through the “medical” category.

Not only are there numerous apps for keeping track of patient lists and all the valuable information required there, such as allergies and past medical history, but there’s also a fair number of popular diagnostic resources that have been created into an app.

A great example is the Merck Manual, which has been around in paper book form for well over 100 years. It’s an extremely popular resource for physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals looking for information on health-related topics, specifically related to symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

The Merck Manual is now an app, and a pretty good one for that matter.

For $35 you can download the universal app onto both your iPad and iPhone and you’re good to go. You instantly have access to this essential medical reference book right there on your iPhone. If you also download a medication reference app and an app for physiotherapy recommendations, you really can have an entire medical library for reference literally at your fingertips.

Just think of how beneficial this can be for medical students.

You can see how the popularity of mobile devices and app development has really changed the way healthcare professionals practice their work. It’s become a quick and trusted way to access information, track health records, save paper and make everyone more productive.

Link:

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/merck-manual-professional/id331016312?mt=8