Applying mobile solutions to real clinical settings: Challenges and lessons learned

Abstract

Preventing medical errors and improving patient safety are always ranked at top priority in healthcare. According to previous researches, there are several ways to improve patient safety with information technology (IT). In this study, three cases of improving patient safety in a tertiary university hospital are presented; an smartphone app for doctors to improve communication among healthcare professionals, information prescription (IRx) to patients using smartphones for providing access to information, and SpO2 monitoring system of post-operative patients at general care floor. According to the users' responses, doctors showed high satisfaction on using the smartphone app. In particular, it is really effective for pre-operation consultation. In case of information prescription, it reduced healthcare professionals' work load. The patient monitoring system saved patients' lives in emergency in 2008. However, healthcare industry has always been late to adopt these mobile solutions since there are problems in economic justification and technical issues adopting them in a real clinical setting. These issues have to be settled in the future in order to speed up adoptions of innovative solutions in practice for improving patient safety. Although the SMC could not completely settle the issues, it is a good model case because it has successfully adopted a variety of mobile solutions with a long-term and convergence planning for past 20 years. © 2014 ICIC International.