Patient Portals Are Going Mobile

Patient engagement is becoming increasingly popular—thankfully. As it does so, mobile patient portals are a more popular conversation than ever before, and with good reason. Mobile platforms let patients view their lab results instantly, stay engaged despite leaving the doctor’s office, and even access appointment scheduling without ever picking up the phone.
Plain and simple, these mobile solutions represent a dramatic step in healthcare. According to David Weinstock, MD, a primary care physician at Grove Medical Associates in Massachusetts, he can “actually see blood pressures, blood sugars, how much they’re [the patients] exercising…” Basically, by monitoring whether or not patients are properly adhering to treatment programs, doctors can make better educated decisions.
They can combine mobile platforms with already existing popular products like the FitBit. The application would then pull data from the FitBit and other various devices to draw a comprehensive picture of a patient’s treatment plan. This way, doctors can make adjustments to the treatment as needed, or explain to patients how to better adhere to their treatment if there is a discrepancy.
Many major players in the healthcare industry recognize what is unfurling before their eyes, and are reacting appropriately. In fact, Mount Sinai Health System, in particular, recently developed a mobile patient portal. By giving patients to take control of their own treatment, they are involving the general public to an unprecedented degree.
Indeed, the app even goes so far as to include several features of the original patient portal including but not limited to medical record access, appointment scheduling, and online bill pay. Not to mention, it also features general health system information like operating hours, parking, directions to various facilities and urgent care locations as well.
While the future of healthcare is certainly unpredictable, it is clear patient engagement needs to improve exponentially, and it appears to be doing just that. Spearheaded by innovative programs like Mount Sinai’s mobile patient portal, the medical world is not just revolving—it’s evolving.