- Email: [email protected]
Using Smartphone Applications in Perioperative Practice
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY Using Smartphone Applications in Perioperative Practice JENNIFER M. BRUSCO, BS, CNA
F
or the past decade, use of smartphones (ie, mobile telephones “with computer features that may enable [them] to interact with computerized systems, send emails, and access the web”1) has become more ingrained in everyday life. Not only can individuals use smartphones personally and professionally to make telephone calls and send e-mail, but they also can search the Internet and use various applications (apps) to track and view information about health, fitness, money/budgets, projects, and other topics. Today’s fast-paced environment requires virtually instant gratification in the search for information. To meet this need, individuals often turn to the smartphone. “Smartphones allow mobility, and desktops don’t. This is critical for health professionals who don’t spend their days sitting in one place.”2 Many organizations have recognized the value and popularity of the smartphone and have developed various applications for the device, some free and some for a fee. Health care-related apps have the ability to empower clinicians by providing a resource in the palm of their hand for accessing pertinent information about medications, symptoms, and diagnoses; dosage calculators; the electronic health record; and more without having to leave the patient. Some health care personnel have even received smartphones for professional use to increase productivity and communication.3,4 Additionally, some nursing education programs
are requiring students to have a smartphone and have provided recommendations for certain apps to be downloaded.5-7 An individual’s ability to manage his or her multitude of activities, responsibilities, and interests while on the go has led to the development and continual evolution of smartphones. Individuals should take into consideration the following characteristics when choosing a smartphone:
memory, processor speed, overall size/thickness, availability of desired applications, screen size, camera functionality, cellular network provider, and price.
Although there are several smartphones on the market, the iPhone™, BlackBerry™, and Droid™ are three popular choices (Figure 1). As with anything, there are pros and cons to each device. It is ultimately up to the user to decide which features are most important and which phone suits his or her needs. HEALTH CARE-RELATED APPS Health care-related apps that are innovative, informative, clear, and concise are becoming more and more prevalent in the health care industry. Health care professionals are using these apps for reference, calculations, data transfer, alerts, and
If you have an idea for a column or a technology-related question that you would like to see addressed, contact Jennifer M. Brusco at [email protected]. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2010.09.001
© AORN, Inc, 2010
November 2010
Vol 92
No 5 ●
AORN Journal
503
November 2010
Vol 92
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY
No 5
Figure 1. Smartphone comparison.
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AORN Journal
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY notifications. Following are descriptions of some health care-related apps that may be beneficial in the perioperative setting. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of available apps; it is simply a sample of some of the health care apps currently available. Apps From Epocrates® Epocrates, Inc, San Mateo, California, “develops clinical information and decision support tools that enable healthcare professionals to find answers more quickly and confidently at the point of care.”8 Apps from Epocrates are supported on the following devices: iPhone, iPod Touch™, BlackBerry, Palm™, Android™, Windows Mobile™, and online. Apps available for a fee include the following: Epocrates Essentials Deluxe—“complete clinical practice suite that provides reliable clinical information . . . comes with many helpful features, like comprehensive coding reference and extensive medical dictionary.”9 $199 (1 year); $299 (2 years). Epocrates Essentials—“premium drug and disease reference” with features such as “integrated disease database with conditions, plus over-the-counter medications and hundreds of diagnostic and laboratory tests . . . also includes continual free updates and medical news.”10 $159 (1 year); $269 (2 years). Epocrates RX Pro—“premium drug and formulary reference” with features such as “overthe-counter medications, infectious disease treatment guide, and complementary and alternative medicines . . . includes continual free updates and medical news.”11 $99 (1 year); $169 (2 years).
Apps available for free include the following: Epocrates RX—features include a medication guide, formulary information, and medication interaction checker. Epocrates Medtools—add-on application for Epocrates software. Some of the tools include MedMath, body mass index tool, drip rate cal
www.aornjournal.org
culator, diabetes management tool, corticosteroid converter, heparin dosing protocol, and opioid analgesic converter. Epocrates MobileCME—application featuring courses that allow users to earn continuing education credits on the go. Epocrates Mobile Resource Centers—add-on app for another Epocrates app (eg, Epocrates Essentials, Epocrates RX Pro) that can help the user stay current with relevant clinical news and research about medical conditions or specialties. Apps From PEPID™ PEPID, Evanston, Illinois, provides electronic decision support resources for health care providers (eg, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, students, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, pharmacists) via smartphone, online, and wireless technology. Resources include “fully-integrated medical, clinical, and pharmacological data; medical calculators, dosing calculators, drug interactions generator and illustrations.”12 Apps are supported on iPhone, Pocket PC,™ BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Palm. Nursing apps available for a fee include the following: Professional Nursing Suite—“gives nurses an easy way to bring all the information they need to make accurate decisions to the bedside— improving quality, safety, and efficiency of care. Written by nurses for nurses . . . contains nursing considerations and diagnoses in clinical topics and drug content.”13 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years). Critical Care Nursing Suite—provides access to information specifically for use in the intensive care unit. Features include “assessments tailored exclusively for critical care, quick access to drugs and drips, an IV compatibility checker and nursing considerations in both pharmacological and clinical topics.”14 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years).
AORN Journal
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November 2010
Vol 92
No 5
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY
Glossary of Key Terms 3G (3rd generation): A family standard for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union. Applications (Apps): Computer software that is designed to assist the user with performing a specific function or multiple functions. Bluetooth® technology: Proprietary open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances using short radio waves from mobile devices; it provides entirely wireless connections for a variety of communication devices (eg, mobile phones). Geotagging: Process of adding geographical identification metadata to media such as photos and videos. LED (Light-emitting diode) flash: A semiconductor light source. Pixel: The smallest discrete component of an image that is usually a colored dot; the more pixels or dots per inch (DPI), the better the resolution (ie, sharper the image). Predictive text: Input technology commonly found on mobile phones that attempts to predict the work being typed as the user is typing it, thereby allowing the user to type faster. Processor: The part of the computer that processes data. QWERTY keyboard: Standard layout of keys on a keyboard; the name comes from the first six letters on the top row of alphabetical keys on the keyboard’s left side. Smartphone: A mobile telephone with computer features that may enable it to interact with computerized systems, send e-mail, and access the Internet. Tap-to-focus: A function of the iPhone 4’s camera that allows the user to focus on a certain area by tapping the screen on that area. Tethering: The use of a mobile device (eg, mobile phone) to supply Internet access for another device (eg, personal computer) that is otherwise unconnected. Wi-Fi: A popular term for wireless data communication; it refers to a set of standards for wireless local area networks and wireless networking equipment used to connect to the Internet and other devices.
Oncology Nursing Suite—“fully integrated informatics tool that allows [nurses] to quickly retrieve critical information on IV compatibility, drip rates and narcotic equianalgesic dosing” as well as “Putting Evidence into Practice (PEP) cards so [nurses] can easily see current research accompanied by interventions”15 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years). Gerontological Nursing Suite—point-of-care resource for gerontological nurses. Features include “instant access to information including Fulmer SPICES, gerontological assessments, orientation-memory-concentration and
506
AORN Journal
infection scores” as well as “a drug database with Beers criteria, dosing calculators and interactions generator.”16 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years). Other apps offered by PEPID include McGrawHill Nurse to Nurse Series (eg, wound care, trauma care, dementia care) and student products (eg, clinical rotation companion, NCLEX® review). Apps From AirStrip™ Technologies AirStrip Technologies, San Antonio, Texas, develops mobile medical apps that “deliver critical patient information, including virtual real-time
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY waveform data, directly from hospital monitoring systems to a doctor or nurse’s smartphone, laptop or desktop.”17 For physicians and nurses to use AirStrip Technologies apps, their facility must first acquire the AirStrip server. Free apps are available for the iPhone, including AirStrip OB™, AirStrip Critical Care™, AirStrip Cardiology™, AirStrip Imaging™, and AirStrip Laboratory™. Apps From Voalté® Voalté, Inc, Sarasota, Florida, “provides compelling software solutions for healthcare institutions that solve communication problems at the pointof-care.”18 Voalté products focus on fusing voice, text, and alarms to improve communication and patient safety. Staff members at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Florida, pilot tested the Voalté app on their iPhones in 2009. Results of the pilot test showed that staff members responded positively to the use of the app, commenting that it helped them respond quickly to patients’ needs; use of the app by staff members to communicate with one another also reduced the use of overhead paging by 78%.19 Voalté One is available for the iPhone,20 BlackBerry,21 or iPad™22 and allows users to
manage multiple text message conversations; receive and respond to alarms; log and retrieve all alarm, telephone, and text message data for accountability; communicate via Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP); generate “quick messages”; and receive voice calls, alarms, and text messages on a single device.
These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of apps available for health care professionals. New apps are developed and updated daily and can assist health care professionals with improving communication, productivity, patient safety, and ultimately patient and staff member satisfaction.
www.aornjournal.org
ADDRESSING SECURITY CONCERNS As with any technology, there are security concerns to consider. Some may argue that it is not safe or compliant with privacy policies for health care professionals to have access to patient information from a handheld device.23 With the use of secure networks, encryption, and other advanced security measures— both existing and in the development process—these concerns are being addressed. For example, “Hospitals that support smartphones generally have policies on passwords and automated timeouts, which lock the phone down after a few seconds of being idle.”2 Baldwin explored measures for securing data on portable devices in a July 2010 issue of Health Data Management.23 He indicates that some facilities are addressing the security concern by monitoring data transfers and adding encryption to mobile devices as well as LoJack™ software that will allow the device to be remotely wiped clean of all data should it be lost or stolen.
CONCLUSION The ability to access information at a moment’s notice has become an expectation for many people. When a question arises, many people reach for their smartphone or other mobile device to find the answer immediately. The need for instant access to information extends beyond personal and social situations to professional encounters, including in the health care community. Health care professionals likely will continue to see mobile devices integrated into patient care systems and find that the overall productivity and accessibility of critical information will be available from anywhere the health care professional and his or her mobile device may be located. Editor’s note: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are trademarks of Apple, Inc, Cupertino, CA. BlackBerry is a trademark of RIM, Ltd, Waterloo, Ontario. Droid is a trademark of Lucasfilm, Ltd, San Francisco, CA. Epocrates is a registered trademark of Epocrates, Inc, San Mateo, CA. Palm is AORN Journal
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No 5
a trademark of Palm, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA. Android is a trademark of Google Inc, Mountain View, CA. Windows Mobile and Pocket PC are trademarks of Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA. PEPID is a trademark of PEPID LLC, Evanston, IL. NCLEX is a registered trademark of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Chicago, IL. AirStrip OB, AirStrip Critical Care, AirStrip Cardiology, AirStrip Imaging, and AirStrip Laboratory are trademarks of AirStrip Technologies, San Antonio, TX. Voalté is a registered trademark of Voalte, Inc, Sarasota, FL. LoJack is a trademark of LoJack Corporation, Westwood, MA. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Inc, Kirkland, WA. Publication of this article does not imply AORN endorsement of specific products. Prices cited in this article were applicable at the time this article was written. Acknowledgement: The author thanks Marisa Conway at Brodeur Partners for her assistance in gathering information about the BlackBerry Torch and Teresa Brewer at Apple, Inc, for her assistance in gathering information about the iPhone and other Apple products.
7.
8. 9.
10.
11.
12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
18. 19.
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
508
Smartphone. Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference .com/browse/smartphone. Accessed August 9, 2010. Dolan PL. Physician smartphone popularity shifts health IT focus to mobile use. American Medical Association. Am Med News. http://www.ama-assn.org/ amednews/2010/08/23/bil10823.htm. Accessed August 23, 2010. Dolan B. Doylestown hospital: iPhone 3G for physicians, staff. Mobihealthnews. April 30, 2009. http:// mobihealthnews.com/1781/doylestown-hospitaliphone-3g-for-physicians-staff/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Dolan B. Voalte announces pilot results from Sarasota Memorial. Mobihealthnews. http://mobihealthnews.com/ 4798/voalte-announces-pilot-results-from-sarasotamemorial/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Graduate nursing student mobile device (PDA) requirement. University of Virginia Health System. http:// www.hsl.virginia.edu/portal/sonursing/son_mobile.cfm. Accessed August 11, 2010. Mobile Device-Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Lawrence Memorial/Regis College: Nursing Program: Associate of Science. http://www.lmregisnurse.org/tuition-
AORN Journal
20.
21.
22.
23.
and-financial-aid/tuition-and-fees.html. Accessed August 11, 2010. Nursing students accepted for Fall 2010: PDA/Smartphone requirements. Texas State University. http:// www.health.txstate.edu/nursing/BSN-Students/ Fall2010Students.html. Accessed August 11, 2010. Overview. Epocrates. http://www.epocrates.com/ company/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Epocrates Essentials Deluxe: Everything you need to care for your patients and your practice. Epocrates. http://www.epocrates.com/products/deluxe/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Epocrates Essentials: Essential drug, disease, and lab information. Epocrates. http://www.epocrates.com/ products/essentials/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Epocrates RX Pro: More treatments, more answers. Epocrates. http://www.epocrates.com/products/rxpro/. Accessed August 11, 2010. About PEPID. PEPID. http://www.pepid.com/company/ profile.asp. Accessed August 11, 2010. Professional Nursing Suite. PEPID. http://www.pepid .com/products/rn/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Critical Care Nursing Suite. PEPID. http://www.pepid .com/products/rncc/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Oncology Nursing Suite. PEPID. http://www.pepid .com/products/rnons/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Gerontological Nursing Suite. PEPID. http://www .pepid.com/products/gero/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Be there from anywhere: the AirStrip story. AirStrip Technologies. http://www.airstriptech.com/Portals/_ default/Skins/AirstripSkin/Corporate/AboutUs/tabid/ 75/Default.aspx. Accessed August 11, 2010. Mission statement. Voalte. http://www.voalte.com/ About.aspx. Accessed August 12, 2010. Dolan B. Sarasota Memorial Hospital employs iPhone app to improve point-of-care communication. October 7, 2009. Mobihealthnews. http://mobihealthnews.com/ 4796/sarasota-memorial-hospital-employs-iphone-appto-improve-point-of-care-communication/. Accessed August 20, 2010. Voalté One for iPhone: The one solution for caregivers. Voalté. http://www.voalte.com/Voalte-One-for-iPhone .aspx. Accessed August 12, 2010. Voalté One for BlackBerry: The one solution for caregivers. Voalté. http://www.voalte.com/Voalt-One-forBlackBerry.aspx. Accessed August 12, 2010. Voalté one for the iPad: There’s a new platform in town. Voalté. http://www.voalte.com/Voalte-one-forthe-iPad.aspx. Accessed August 12, 2010. Baldwin G. Device dilemma. Health Data Manage. 2010: 30-38. http://digital.healthdatamanagement.com/ healthdatamanagement/201007#pg1. Accessed August 12, 2010.
Jennifer M. Brusco, BS, CNA, is an editor at AORN, Inc, Denver, CO. Ms Brusco has no declared affiliation that could be perceived as posing a potential conflict of interest in publishing this article.
F
or the past decade, use of smartphones (ie, mobile telephones “with computer features that may enable [them] to interact with computerized systems, send emails, and access the web”1) has become more ingrained in everyday life. Not only can individuals use smartphones personally and professionally to make telephone calls and send e-mail, but they also can search the Internet and use various applications (apps) to track and view information about health, fitness, money/budgets, projects, and other topics. Today’s fast-paced environment requires virtually instant gratification in the search for information. To meet this need, individuals often turn to the smartphone. “Smartphones allow mobility, and desktops don’t. This is critical for health professionals who don’t spend their days sitting in one place.”2 Many organizations have recognized the value and popularity of the smartphone and have developed various applications for the device, some free and some for a fee. Health care-related apps have the ability to empower clinicians by providing a resource in the palm of their hand for accessing pertinent information about medications, symptoms, and diagnoses; dosage calculators; the electronic health record; and more without having to leave the patient. Some health care personnel have even received smartphones for professional use to increase productivity and communication.3,4 Additionally, some nursing education programs
are requiring students to have a smartphone and have provided recommendations for certain apps to be downloaded.5-7 An individual’s ability to manage his or her multitude of activities, responsibilities, and interests while on the go has led to the development and continual evolution of smartphones. Individuals should take into consideration the following characteristics when choosing a smartphone:
memory, processor speed, overall size/thickness, availability of desired applications, screen size, camera functionality, cellular network provider, and price.
Although there are several smartphones on the market, the iPhone™, BlackBerry™, and Droid™ are three popular choices (Figure 1). As with anything, there are pros and cons to each device. It is ultimately up to the user to decide which features are most important and which phone suits his or her needs. HEALTH CARE-RELATED APPS Health care-related apps that are innovative, informative, clear, and concise are becoming more and more prevalent in the health care industry. Health care professionals are using these apps for reference, calculations, data transfer, alerts, and
If you have an idea for a column or a technology-related question that you would like to see addressed, contact Jennifer M. Brusco at [email protected]. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2010.09.001
© AORN, Inc, 2010
November 2010
Vol 92
No 5 ●
AORN Journal
503
November 2010
Vol 92
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY
No 5
Figure 1. Smartphone comparison.
504
AORN Journal
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY notifications. Following are descriptions of some health care-related apps that may be beneficial in the perioperative setting. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of available apps; it is simply a sample of some of the health care apps currently available. Apps From Epocrates® Epocrates, Inc, San Mateo, California, “develops clinical information and decision support tools that enable healthcare professionals to find answers more quickly and confidently at the point of care.”8 Apps from Epocrates are supported on the following devices: iPhone, iPod Touch™, BlackBerry, Palm™, Android™, Windows Mobile™, and online. Apps available for a fee include the following: Epocrates Essentials Deluxe—“complete clinical practice suite that provides reliable clinical information . . . comes with many helpful features, like comprehensive coding reference and extensive medical dictionary.”9 $199 (1 year); $299 (2 years). Epocrates Essentials—“premium drug and disease reference” with features such as “integrated disease database with conditions, plus over-the-counter medications and hundreds of diagnostic and laboratory tests . . . also includes continual free updates and medical news.”10 $159 (1 year); $269 (2 years). Epocrates RX Pro—“premium drug and formulary reference” with features such as “overthe-counter medications, infectious disease treatment guide, and complementary and alternative medicines . . . includes continual free updates and medical news.”11 $99 (1 year); $169 (2 years).
Apps available for free include the following: Epocrates RX—features include a medication guide, formulary information, and medication interaction checker. Epocrates Medtools—add-on application for Epocrates software. Some of the tools include MedMath, body mass index tool, drip rate cal
www.aornjournal.org
culator, diabetes management tool, corticosteroid converter, heparin dosing protocol, and opioid analgesic converter. Epocrates MobileCME—application featuring courses that allow users to earn continuing education credits on the go. Epocrates Mobile Resource Centers—add-on app for another Epocrates app (eg, Epocrates Essentials, Epocrates RX Pro) that can help the user stay current with relevant clinical news and research about medical conditions or specialties. Apps From PEPID™ PEPID, Evanston, Illinois, provides electronic decision support resources for health care providers (eg, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, students, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, pharmacists) via smartphone, online, and wireless technology. Resources include “fully-integrated medical, clinical, and pharmacological data; medical calculators, dosing calculators, drug interactions generator and illustrations.”12 Apps are supported on iPhone, Pocket PC,™ BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Palm. Nursing apps available for a fee include the following: Professional Nursing Suite—“gives nurses an easy way to bring all the information they need to make accurate decisions to the bedside— improving quality, safety, and efficiency of care. Written by nurses for nurses . . . contains nursing considerations and diagnoses in clinical topics and drug content.”13 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years). Critical Care Nursing Suite—provides access to information specifically for use in the intensive care unit. Features include “assessments tailored exclusively for critical care, quick access to drugs and drips, an IV compatibility checker and nursing considerations in both pharmacological and clinical topics.”14 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years).
AORN Journal
505
November 2010
Vol 92
No 5
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY
Glossary of Key Terms 3G (3rd generation): A family standard for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union. Applications (Apps): Computer software that is designed to assist the user with performing a specific function or multiple functions. Bluetooth® technology: Proprietary open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances using short radio waves from mobile devices; it provides entirely wireless connections for a variety of communication devices (eg, mobile phones). Geotagging: Process of adding geographical identification metadata to media such as photos and videos. LED (Light-emitting diode) flash: A semiconductor light source. Pixel: The smallest discrete component of an image that is usually a colored dot; the more pixels or dots per inch (DPI), the better the resolution (ie, sharper the image). Predictive text: Input technology commonly found on mobile phones that attempts to predict the work being typed as the user is typing it, thereby allowing the user to type faster. Processor: The part of the computer that processes data. QWERTY keyboard: Standard layout of keys on a keyboard; the name comes from the first six letters on the top row of alphabetical keys on the keyboard’s left side. Smartphone: A mobile telephone with computer features that may enable it to interact with computerized systems, send e-mail, and access the Internet. Tap-to-focus: A function of the iPhone 4’s camera that allows the user to focus on a certain area by tapping the screen on that area. Tethering: The use of a mobile device (eg, mobile phone) to supply Internet access for another device (eg, personal computer) that is otherwise unconnected. Wi-Fi: A popular term for wireless data communication; it refers to a set of standards for wireless local area networks and wireless networking equipment used to connect to the Internet and other devices.
Oncology Nursing Suite—“fully integrated informatics tool that allows [nurses] to quickly retrieve critical information on IV compatibility, drip rates and narcotic equianalgesic dosing” as well as “Putting Evidence into Practice (PEP) cards so [nurses] can easily see current research accompanied by interventions”15 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years). Gerontological Nursing Suite—point-of-care resource for gerontological nurses. Features include “instant access to information including Fulmer SPICES, gerontological assessments, orientation-memory-concentration and
506
AORN Journal
infection scores” as well as “a drug database with Beers criteria, dosing calculators and interactions generator.”16 $149.95 (1 year); $259.95 (2 years). Other apps offered by PEPID include McGrawHill Nurse to Nurse Series (eg, wound care, trauma care, dementia care) and student products (eg, clinical rotation companion, NCLEX® review). Apps From AirStrip™ Technologies AirStrip Technologies, San Antonio, Texas, develops mobile medical apps that “deliver critical patient information, including virtual real-time
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY waveform data, directly from hospital monitoring systems to a doctor or nurse’s smartphone, laptop or desktop.”17 For physicians and nurses to use AirStrip Technologies apps, their facility must first acquire the AirStrip server. Free apps are available for the iPhone, including AirStrip OB™, AirStrip Critical Care™, AirStrip Cardiology™, AirStrip Imaging™, and AirStrip Laboratory™. Apps From Voalté® Voalté, Inc, Sarasota, Florida, “provides compelling software solutions for healthcare institutions that solve communication problems at the pointof-care.”18 Voalté products focus on fusing voice, text, and alarms to improve communication and patient safety. Staff members at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Florida, pilot tested the Voalté app on their iPhones in 2009. Results of the pilot test showed that staff members responded positively to the use of the app, commenting that it helped them respond quickly to patients’ needs; use of the app by staff members to communicate with one another also reduced the use of overhead paging by 78%.19 Voalté One is available for the iPhone,20 BlackBerry,21 or iPad™22 and allows users to
manage multiple text message conversations; receive and respond to alarms; log and retrieve all alarm, telephone, and text message data for accountability; communicate via Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP); generate “quick messages”; and receive voice calls, alarms, and text messages on a single device.
These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of apps available for health care professionals. New apps are developed and updated daily and can assist health care professionals with improving communication, productivity, patient safety, and ultimately patient and staff member satisfaction.
www.aornjournal.org
ADDRESSING SECURITY CONCERNS As with any technology, there are security concerns to consider. Some may argue that it is not safe or compliant with privacy policies for health care professionals to have access to patient information from a handheld device.23 With the use of secure networks, encryption, and other advanced security measures— both existing and in the development process—these concerns are being addressed. For example, “Hospitals that support smartphones generally have policies on passwords and automated timeouts, which lock the phone down after a few seconds of being idle.”2 Baldwin explored measures for securing data on portable devices in a July 2010 issue of Health Data Management.23 He indicates that some facilities are addressing the security concern by monitoring data transfers and adding encryption to mobile devices as well as LoJack™ software that will allow the device to be remotely wiped clean of all data should it be lost or stolen.
CONCLUSION The ability to access information at a moment’s notice has become an expectation for many people. When a question arises, many people reach for their smartphone or other mobile device to find the answer immediately. The need for instant access to information extends beyond personal and social situations to professional encounters, including in the health care community. Health care professionals likely will continue to see mobile devices integrated into patient care systems and find that the overall productivity and accessibility of critical information will be available from anywhere the health care professional and his or her mobile device may be located. Editor’s note: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are trademarks of Apple, Inc, Cupertino, CA. BlackBerry is a trademark of RIM, Ltd, Waterloo, Ontario. Droid is a trademark of Lucasfilm, Ltd, San Francisco, CA. Epocrates is a registered trademark of Epocrates, Inc, San Mateo, CA. Palm is AORN Journal
507
November 2010
Vol 92
TAPPING INTO TECHNOLOGY
No 5
a trademark of Palm, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA. Android is a trademark of Google Inc, Mountain View, CA. Windows Mobile and Pocket PC are trademarks of Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA. PEPID is a trademark of PEPID LLC, Evanston, IL. NCLEX is a registered trademark of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Chicago, IL. AirStrip OB, AirStrip Critical Care, AirStrip Cardiology, AirStrip Imaging, and AirStrip Laboratory are trademarks of AirStrip Technologies, San Antonio, TX. Voalté is a registered trademark of Voalte, Inc, Sarasota, FL. LoJack is a trademark of LoJack Corporation, Westwood, MA. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Inc, Kirkland, WA. Publication of this article does not imply AORN endorsement of specific products. Prices cited in this article were applicable at the time this article was written. Acknowledgement: The author thanks Marisa Conway at Brodeur Partners for her assistance in gathering information about the BlackBerry Torch and Teresa Brewer at Apple, Inc, for her assistance in gathering information about the iPhone and other Apple products.
7.
8. 9.
10.
11.
12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
18. 19.
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
508
Smartphone. Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference .com/browse/smartphone. Accessed August 9, 2010. Dolan PL. Physician smartphone popularity shifts health IT focus to mobile use. American Medical Association. Am Med News. http://www.ama-assn.org/ amednews/2010/08/23/bil10823.htm. Accessed August 23, 2010. Dolan B. Doylestown hospital: iPhone 3G for physicians, staff. Mobihealthnews. April 30, 2009. http:// mobihealthnews.com/1781/doylestown-hospitaliphone-3g-for-physicians-staff/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Dolan B. Voalte announces pilot results from Sarasota Memorial. Mobihealthnews. http://mobihealthnews.com/ 4798/voalte-announces-pilot-results-from-sarasotamemorial/. Accessed August 11, 2010. Graduate nursing student mobile device (PDA) requirement. University of Virginia Health System. http:// www.hsl.virginia.edu/portal/sonursing/son_mobile.cfm. Accessed August 11, 2010. Mobile Device-Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Lawrence Memorial/Regis College: Nursing Program: Associate of Science. http://www.lmregisnurse.org/tuition-
AORN Journal
20.
21.
22.
23.
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Jennifer M. Brusco, BS, CNA, is an editor at AORN, Inc, Denver, CO. Ms Brusco has no declared affiliation that could be perceived as posing a potential conflict of interest in publishing this article.