Many of the applications that have accompanied the recent surge in mHealth apps available via smartphones are aimed at reducing hospital expenditures and how often a patient needs to visit a medical professional. However, not all applications are directed solely at the objective of aiding physicians and providing a supplement to doctor-patient interactions.
In fact, there are currently many applications on the market that have been developed as simple means of “diagnosing” a variety of ailments without a trip to the doctor, a presence which Dr. Omete, a rural medical practitioner condemns. He states that these applications are inherently flawed due to the fact that all bodies function slightly differently, and there is always uncertainty in medicine, meaning that no application can be programmed for the entire population.
Therefore, Omete emphasizes the need for developers to recognize the role of applications, not as a means of replacing visits to medical professionals, but instead as a means of reducing expenditures through functions such as increasing the ease with which doctors share information with other professionals or creating a closer relationship between the patient and doctor.
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