User:Marykatem/sandbox

= Patient participation = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mobile health
MHealth is bringing promising solutions to meet the growing demand for care. With more and more evidence suggesting that the most effective treatment models involve specialized, multi-faceted approaches, and require a variety of materials and effort on both the physician's and patient's end. Mobile applications serve as both a method for increasing health literacy, and as a bridge for patient-physician communication (thus increasing patient participation). There are a broad number of ways to increase participation through the use of web-based and mobile applications. Live videoconferencing appointments have proven effective, especially in the field of mental health, and can be especially significant in providing services to low resource, rural communities. Patient reminders have increased patient participation in attending preventative screenings, and it is possible that similar reminders distributed automatically via web-based applications, such as patient portals, have the potential to provide similar benefits at a potentially lower cost.

To meet this demand for materials, production of patient-centered health applications is occurring at a rapid pace, with estimates of over 100,000 mobile applications available for use already. This boom in production has lead to a developing concern regarding the amount of research and testing the application undergoes before going live, while others see promise in patient's having greater access to treatment materials. Some of that concern includes whether or not the patient will continue to use the mobile application specific for their treatment needs over time.