mHealth Technologies

Answer

mHealth Technologies

Introduction

The desire for better health and higher quality of life devoid of lifestyle diseases has pushed the adoption of wearable healthcare technologies. McGrail (2020) reports that 80% of the Americans are willing to use wearable sensors and other technologies to enhance monitoring of their health conditions. In addition, the continued acceptability of these technologies is fostered by the lowering costs and ease of use. This is unlike the previous years when using healthcare technologies was expensive and unaffordable to most people who needed them. It is upon this understanding that this research paper identifies a healthcare organization problem and describes its impact. Furthermore, the paper reviews scientific literature and other useful sources of information to identify and describe 3 types of mHealth technologies and interventions.

Healthcare Organization Problem and Its Impact

mHealth wearable sensors are designed to provide comfort, boost quality of care, and enhance the overall quality of life of the users. The introduction of wearable sensors has been necessitated by both healthcare organization problems and biomedical problems (Phaneuf, 2019). Organization problems include failure by the nurses to effectively monitor patients, leading to workplace accidents. On the other hand, wearable sensors are used in biomedical field to monitor the response of a client to medication. The wearable sensors are equipped with features to relay real time information and data on the interaction between physiological and biological aspects of a person’s health. Apart from the use of mHealth wearable sensors in these two environments, they are also being used to monitor fitness activities where they aid in recording breathing rate and heart rate as well as register other dynamics during training and fitness sessions. However, the overall goal of wearable sensors is to monitor patients in the healthcare setting.

Literature Review on Three types of mHealth Technologies and Interventions

Wearable technology refers to electronic devices worn by consumers to help monitor health and fitness. They include smartwatches and Fitbits and are specifically designed to collect data on exercise and health of the users. According to McGrail (2020), the use of wearable technologies rose from 9% to 33% between 2014 and 2018. Different versions of wearable technologies have been developed by different groups in the healthcare industry. These include technology companies, care providers and insurers. The first type of wearable technology is the wearable fitness trackers. They are the simplest form of mHealth technology and are manufactured as wristbands and embedded with sensors to track the heart rate and physical activities of the users. Fitness trackers perform additional functions such as providing the wearer with fitness and health recommendations by synching with smartphone apps. An example is Fitbit Flex which is the most popular, and the cheapest. The second type of mHealth technology is smart health watches. The watches have an inbuilt Movement Disorder API that helps healthcare providers gather information on the Parkinson’s disease (Chahine & Stern, 2017). They also have functionalities that enable users to read notifications, make calls, and send simple messages. In addition, they track health and pattern of exercise.

The third type is wearable ECG monitors. This technology measures electrocardiograms (ECG) and detects atrial fibrillation. The information collected is autonomously shared with the doctors. The device also keeps a record of distance travelled, elevation and tracks pace when walking, biking, swimming or running (Phaneuf 2019). The fourth type is wearable blood pressure monitors. An example is the HeartGuide wearable sensor which has an oscillometer to monitor blood pressure by monitoring daily activities such as calories burned, distance travelled and steps taken (Zhao, Li & Tsien, 2016). The last technology is a biosensor. This is an upcoming wearable device. It differs from the other smartwatches and trackers worn on wrists and it primarily collects data such as temperature, respiratory rate, heart rates and movements. Biosensor also monitors clients who are at risk of respiratory or cardiac arrest (Phaneuf, 2019). It is noted that as more people embrace the wearable sensor mHealth technologies, they are likely to become more sophisticated in terms of functionality, yet cheaper in regard to cost.

Conclusion

This research paper acknowledges the emergence of wearable sensors as a technology that helps monitor patient activities and persons interested in fitness and health activities. Currently, there are four types of wearable sensors; namely, biosensors, wearable blood pressure monitors, wearable ECG monitors, smart health watches, and wearable fitness trackers. The main challenge with these technologies is that they are costly to develop, which translates to higher prices than most people can afford.