Mobile Medical Applications

Often enough, I'll hear or say, "It's just a bandage" (to avoid the popular brand-name bandage) in response to a solution that won't truly fix a problem or is just a temporary measure or bridge to the better solution. I had a thought today that it might apply to our current use of mobile medical applications. Is this how our smartphones and their glorious mobile medical applications will be viewed in retrospect? A temporary fix to the next real-deal technology? Will they really be the Beta, American reception of the MiniDisc, or HD DVD of healthcare?

OK - I sound a bit crazy saying that, but many a tech blogger are currently analyzing the next steps of Google and Apple. The wave of the future? Wearable electronics and voice recognition. Take the oft storied "Google Glass" for example: a set of spectacular spectacles in development to show users real-time data overlapping the world around them. Other rumors suppose that Apple is working on their own brand of glasses too (and a watch that could launch as early as this year). Add to that a voice recognition feature wherein the user tells the glasses what he or she wants: "Find the nearest 5-star cafe." "Call my mom." "Take me to your leader." Makes the smartphone look like a block of plastic and metal.

Mobile medical applications are fantastic in that they are currently making lives easier and improving outcomes of medical interactions. But, we might need to wait for voice recognition and wearable electronics (glasses, watches, etc.) to see a wide-adoption of gadgetry and, hopefully, a great revolution in healthcare.

-RTK

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