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Tag Archives: mobile business applications

e-Health and Mobility – Strategy in a Nutshell

30 Nov

There are some staggering statistics recently released by Forbes regarding smartphones and apps. According to Forbes (www.forbes.com) there will be 1 billion smartphones sold in 2013, which is twice the number of PC’s predicted to be sold that year.  By 2016 there will be 10 billion mobile internet devices used globally, which is 50 times the size it is today.  Between 2010 and 2011 the time spent on mobile apps began to outpace the time spent on the desktop or mobile Web.  In the same time period there was a 91% increase in the time users spent on mobile applications. By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will out-number native PC projects by a ratio of 4-1. Between 2009 and 2014 the market for cloud-based mobile apps is projected to increase by nearly 90%.

So what does all this mean ???

The mobile revolution is well and truly here. Organisations of all sizes need to have developed a solid and robust mobile strategy, or face being left behind by clients and competitors.  Whilst there is still some contention over the best strategic approach to mobile application development, there is no doubt that mobile applications are front and centre in leveraging market opportunities, client engagement, process efficiencies, and strategic innovation.

In a recent blog post I proposed the inclusion of a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (or MEAP) as an integral part of any mobile strategy. Of course, this particular strategy depends on the nature of the organisation and its key mobility objectives; however MEAP should not be overlooked when considering a long term view to deployment of multiple different mobile applications, using multiple back-end systems, across any device.

For medium to large sized healthcare organisations, a MEAP based mobile strategy has several advantages over a natively developed application, which is often built with a pre-defined range of objectives, or based on one back-end system.  In this scenario, a mobile platform approach is superior because it:

–          Enables the organisation to customise a solution into fit exact requirements, tailored to the business needs and processes

–          Can provide a competitive advantage, as no one else has that particular mobile application

–          Ensures that changes to the mobile solution are immediate, flexible and more cost effective

–          Is not restricted by the type of mobile device. Mobile platform applications built using HTML5 ensure availability on any mobile device

–          Aligns to organisational “bring your own device” policies (if applicable)

–          Ensures that any development code (apps or API’s) can be re-used to help build other apps

–          Fits into the organisations long term strategies and e-health vision to provide mobile solutions for other uses, for example

      • Bedside medication management
      • Bedside electronic progress notes and electronic care planning
      • Capturing of client and staff incidents, risks, compliance and improvement initiatives
      • Mobile business intelligence and analytics
      • Mobile clinical assessments
      • Information management (eg, mobile access to policies or corporate documents)
      • Others ???

The above examples are likely to need data integrated from multiple in-house systems, which plays into the hands of a mobile platform. While organisations may not require mobility solutions for all the above examples right now, establishing a mobile platform caters for immediate AND long-term organisational use of mobility, even if the future state is not known.  The mobility platform approach has already harnessed recognition across all the major ICT industry research groups including Gartner and Forrester, and is a key component of the ICT Strategy toolkit.

 
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Posted by on November 30, 2012 in e-health, mobility

 

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Time to introduce Videoconferencing into Community Health ?

12 Sep

One of the most effective ways for healthcare providers to improve service delivery is by enhancing the level of collaboration between different stakeholders using videoconferencing, according to a recent report by independent analyst firm Ovum.

Putting dedicated telehealth and telemonitoring solutions to one side for the moment, both home grade and enterprise videoconferencing solutions can be used to improve service delivery outcomes, enhance collaboration and communication between patients and practitioners, and provide more equitable healthcare – particularly to those in rural and remote areas.

Clinicians’ and care workers who provide care for patients in their homes can use videoconferencing tools on tablet or laptop devices:

  • for Occupational Therapy reviews, particularly to review and monitor client equipment usage or risks in the home
  • to link with a physiotherapist to review a patients home exercise program
  • to link with wound assessment or diabetes management experts
  • to liaise with the palliative care team for communication and triage
  • for patient social isolation prevention

Whilst there are many more usage senarios, the main point is that we have the technology available today (eg laptop/tablet & skype) to deliver improved outcomes by using this readily available technology. Unfortunately many (dare I say “most”) community healthcare providers are not using it in this manner.

So, why are some/many community healthcare organisations not using videoconferencing ?

  • Culture and process change – using videoconferencing in the clients home requires change in process, documentation and culture. It needs to be driven proactively by organisational leaders, and requires consultation and buy-in from field staff (and patients).
  • Perceived cost – the purchase of laptops/tablets, monthly data plans and systems (corporate systems give the best experience but come at a price). There is also the cost of change and training. A business case is essential in justifying the return on investment and benefits to patients/staff.
  • Lack of connectivity in remote areas – unfortunately many rural pockets of Australia do not have broadband connectivity, and many areas struggle with cellular 3G connectivity.

To have the best chance of success, the above issues need to be addressed, or mitigated as much as possible. Also, video-conferencing solutions must be tailored to various usage scenarios, so having a clear picture of how the technology will be used is very important. Health related video conferencing initiatives must align with, and be included within an over arching e-health strategy.

With the continual improvements in fixed and mobile broadband connectivity, improvements in equipment interoperability, and relatively low cost entry, video-conferencing in healthcare has a lot of potential now and in the future.

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2012 in e-health, videoconferencing

 

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Does your Mobile Strategy have MEAP ?

30 Jul

Significant growth is forecast in the use of Smartphones worldwide. With this growth in Smartphone use comes an increase in the consumption of mobile applications.

Many businesses have already jumped (or are in the process of jumping) onto the mobile development bandwagon to take advantage of the opportunities and innovation that mobile applications can deliver. Take Dominos Pizza for example. Dominos embraced mobile as a way to enable customers to place orders, and now has more than 30% of their orders placed online or from their smartphone app.

Failure to have a well-considered mobile strategy could make or break business, so it’s important to get it right. One consideration that is gaining momentum at the moment is Mobile Platform as a Service – or a “Mobile Enterprise Application Platform” (MEAP). The MEAP term was originally coined by Gartner, and is a serious alternative to developing bespoke mobile apps. MEAP’s offer fast development, and can be delivered across multiple platforms without the need to re-engineer code. In other words, companies can use a MEAP to develop the mobile application once and deploy it to a variety of mobile devices (including various smart phones, tablets, notebooks, handhelds etc) with no changes to the underlying business logic. This makes it easy to align with your BYOD strategy. MEAP’s can be made available in online and offline mode, and are great for organisations who wish to deploy multiple applications on a single infrastructure.

So, who should consider MEAP as part of their mobile strategy ?

Gartner developed a concept called “the rule of three”, where they encourage companies to consider the MEAP approach to mobility when they need their mobile solutions to:

  • Support three or more mobile business applications
  • Support three or more mobile operating systems (OS)
  • Integrate with at least three back-end data sources

I am currently in the process of sourcing trusted Australian based MEAP providers. If you know of any, I would greatly appreciate if you could get in touch.

 
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Posted by on July 30, 2012 in mobility

 

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