Estimations say that by the year 2025, healthcare applications’ market share should rise up to $60 billion. According to RIseApps, the  healthcare mobile app development company  the market is skyrocketing today.

And here are benefits of getting a healthcare mobile app:

Personal Health Monitor

There are many healthcare mobile applications available today for the patients’ convenience. The use of them depends on what you need right now. These apps allow monitoring personal health conditions such as blood sugar and pressure, cholesterol, and many others. They help the patient to minimize their visits to the doctor for regular checkups.

Also, there are applications to check your daily footsteps, sleep, cholesterol, and others. All you need to know is how to use them properly to get the right reading. These applications also show you various ways to manage your health with dieting, workout, and other tips. It is useful when such apps are developed under the guidance of a healthcare professional.

Yet, if you have an idea and you are the one in healthcare, you can check this article on what you need to know to build a health app.

Reduced Medical Expenses with Online Consultation

This is not new that hospital expenses are quite daunting. Often the costs start counting up at the moment you have stepped into the hospital. The option of getting an online consultation has put a speed breaker on such expenses. Many hospitals and medical experts are now using online consultation applications (moreover, during the lockdown, when hospitals are filled with COVID-19 patients). Such an application is ideal for patients who do not have significant issues and can get qualified medical help without a detailed checkup.

The medical experts offer a prescription for any medication, but the expenditure is much lesser than the hospital visits. The patients can quickly pay for the health service through the app itself.

Additionally, such apps can have a functionality for appointments,in case if the meeting with a healthcare professional is necessary. To check what is that, we suggest you to read the article on how to develop a doctor appointment app.

Accurate Diagnosis

Often a wrong diagnosis leads to unfair treatment or the wrong medication for the patients. The healthcare applications have come to the rescue in such a situation. Many such applications help to diagnose accurately on many health conditions.

Many applications may also provide details about the diseases associated with the diagnosis and the treatments required. This is a great help for doctors in today’s time when life has become quite bust and unpredictable.

Great for Emergencies

The healthcare applications are great for emergencies or the immediate attention of medical professionals. Many doctors diagnose patients digitally. They do not visit the patient’s house but meet up with the patient online through the apps. This turns out to be a great help at crisis times, such as the times of COVID-19.

Again, some applications are specially designed for older people. The name of the hospital or the doctor is filled in the application beforehand. In emergency times, the patient can immediately send a message or alert through the app to the respective hospital or doctor for help.

Remote Area Help

It is not always possible for doctors or medical experts to visit every town area. There can be some remote areas where visiting may not be reasonable. In such a situation again, the application can be of great help. The patients can digitally get in touch with the doctor, not looking at the location, and get the required medical attention.

Doctors can Stay Updated

New medications and their combinations are approved by healthcare commissioners each day. It is essential to stay updated so that the doctors can offer better treatment to the patients. Some applications can offer regular latest updates on various drugs. This way, the doctors can know about the most recent combinations and researches and how they can be used for the treatment.

Healthcare mobile applications are thus a boon to society. It is a great help for the patients as well as for the medical experts. However, there are only a few healthcare software development companies that can handle such tasks.

We see that there is a growing demand for healthcare applications today. Some healthcare institutions require hospital management applications, while others wish to have a diagnosis application. Altogether these applications are there to boost healthcare services and offer a helping hand to the patients.

Fast forward 30 years and we have technological advances to help us. But do can they really help us to become healthier? We’re going to look at this now:

Fitness Videos

Fitness videos are more prevalent than they have ever been. Not only can you buy a DVD of your favorite personality working out, but you can watch videos online. Thanks to the power of technological, you can keep fit in the comfort of your own home. There thousands of fitness videos to choose from and you don’t always have to pay to watch them.

Tech at the Doctor’s Office

When you visit the doctor’s office, it’s likely that you will be surrounded by technology. Diagnostic equipment is incredibly accurate these days. Touchscreens help people to check in if they don’t want to speak to a receptionist. The receptionist themselves can use appointment reminders to make sure you attend your appointment. Waiting times are listed on screens in the waiting area, and health advice is scrolled along the same screens. In these respects, technology has helped us become a lot healthier.

Smart Watches

Depending on the type of watch you own, your every step could be tracked and counted. Want to run 3 miles? Just check your distance on your watch while also seeing how many calories you’ve burned. Smart watches can help you to become healthier as they can encourage you to stay or get in shape.

Meal Subscriptions

There are many meal subscription services out there that can help you to stay healthy. Simply order them online and the number of calories you consume will be limited. That is if you stick to only eating these meals. There are many different meals to choose from and they can arrive ready for you to heat up or they can be ready for you to make.

In this respect, technology can help you to become much healthier.

Exercise Equipment

We no longer have to rely on a gym subscription to help us get in shape. We can buy the equipment that we need at home. Running machines, for example, are smaller and more advanced. They can help us to burn off calories or simply get fitter. We can buy trackers that tell us how many calories we’ve burned, and we can get all the exercise we need at home.

In some respects, technology can help us all to become healthier. We can use it to our advantage and monitor our progress. The only thing that technology can’t do is to get us motivated, it’s up to us to motivate ourselves. However, with a bit of work, we too can get healthy and stay healthy thanks to the power of technology.

Despite recent attempts to begin to reopen the country and reactivate the economy, almost two-thirds of the population of the United States continues to be in lockdown due to COVID-19. In an attempt to maintain some semblance of normalcy, Skype, Whatsapp, Zoom, and other virtual meeting software have become commonplace for work meetings, school classes, child play dates, and everything in between.

Predictably, children, adolescents, teenagers, and adults are also spending an increasing amount of time connected to the internet and using social media. While Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat certainly do allow for some sense of connection in these trying times of social distancing and lockdown, there are also serious concerns regarding the effects of social media on mental health. Understanding these risks and creating boundaries and limits is an essential element of caring for our mental health as the current pandemic plays out.

How Much Do We Rely on Social Media?

It is hard to fathom that just a couple of decades ago, social media and the internet didn’t take up any of our time. Today, the average digital native, or a person who was born into a world dominated by the use of the internet and social media, often spends the majority of their day connected to the internet.

The American Time Use Survey published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that the average high school student in the United States spent almost three hours of “likely screen time” during their weekends, and most of that time was most likely dedicated to social media browsing. Comparatively, only one hour and six minutes was dedicated to “in-person socializing” and only 49 minutes to exercise.

The increasing presence of screen time and social media does have indirect consequences on our physical health and might contribute to the ongoing childhood obesity crisis. However, the main threat of increasing social media use is related to our mental health.

The Dangers of Emotional Connection

Routine use of social media channels has become widespread and commonplace. Scrolling through a Facebook account in the morning might be a simple way to check up on friends and family, read a few news articles, and even check the weather for the day. Especially during the current national lockdown and social distancing measures, this routine use of social media is generally considered to generate positive or neutral health outcomes.

However, a recent national sample of American adults found that the emotional connection that we invest in social media is often linked to negative health outcomes. Instead of simply using social media to chat with a distant friend who is studying abroad on the other side of the planet or to read a news article that we find interesting, many people invest important emotional capital in our social media use.

Social media content is often staged in an attempt to create an idyllic representation of how we want others to visualize our lives. An adolescent or teenager who obsessively consumes image after image of the happy and seemingly perfect lives of their friends will often fall into a sense of depression when they find that their lives are not “on par” with those of their contacts.

This emotional connection that arises from constant comparisons can lead to depression, anxiety, and further withdrawal.

Furthermore, it should be a cause for concern that the average American high school student spends at least three times as much time on social media and the internet than engaged in in-person socializing. We are social beings and extracurricular socializing outside of school and work are essential for healthy childhood and adult development.

The Challenges Presented by the Current Pandemic

The current pandemic has shuttered businesses, schools, and virtually all other extracurricular activities. While these measures are a temporary attempt to reduce the infection curve, one of the threats is that the “virtualization” of social life could become normalized. Already, universities and colleges across the nation are moving towards online classes for the fall semester. Many businesses are finding that some workers can be just as productive and effective when working from home.

Even parents are discovering that their child´s dance classes and playdates can effectively be organized with a Zoom account and a decent internet connection.

The normalization of virtual, screen-based relationships and the increasing presence of social media in our lives will most likely have far-reaching psychological and mental health effects. Once the current lockdown and social distancing rules are relaxed, making an effort to reestablish face-to-face socialization should be a priority for everyone who values their mental health.

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We all know we should be doing our best to keep our bodies in good shape, but what about our brains? Brain exercises are just as vital to our health, helping to fight off diseases such as dementia. There are a number of activities you can do to help keep your brain in good condition, from reading to practicing an instrument. None have captured the imagination quite like brain training websites and apps though.

From games consoles to the app store, ways to train our brains have become a big industry. There’s a lot of variety out there for you to enjoy, but here are a few of our favorites to make sure you don’t start getting a bit mentally sluggish.

Online Casinos

Gambling may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you’d be surprised by the health benefits it can offer for your brain. Online Casinos list, review and rate the biggest casino websites and games on the internet. If you’re looking to test your brain with a little bit more on the line you can find the largest variety of games to test yourself against on Online Casinos.

Gambling, particularly card games such as poker and blackjack, have been shown to help a number of cognitive abilities. These games force you to keep track of multiple factors at once while trying to work out the strategy of the people you’re playing against. This improves your ability to multi-task in stressful situations. It can also improve your short term memory as you’re constantly remembering little factors.

If testing your mind against real players looking to win money sounds more enticing than a collection of cute mini-games, then this is the website for you.

Luminosity

Luminosity is a leader in the genre. This brain training and mental fitness website and app sees use around the world and is celebrated for its collection of games. They create simple online games and tools with quirky, colorful designs that help improve cognitive abilities. The variety of appealing games on offer don’t just keep your mind in good check, they’re pretty entertaining as well!

Luminosity games are designed by scientists to improve aspects of brain functionality including speed, memory, attention, flexibility and problem-solving. Within their huge library of games, you’re sure to find something to test whatever aspect of your mind you think might need a tune-up.

With a free Lumonisty account you can play up to three days a game. However, if you want full access to the library you will need to pay a subscription fee.

My Brain Trainer

My Brain Trainer is another subscription-based website, but one that’s much cheaper than market leaders like Luminosity. You can get three months with My Brain Trainer for the cost of one with Lumonisty. This doesn’t mean you’re getting anything less likely to improve your mental agility though.

The website features a collection of puzzles and games to test your cognitive abilities against. These games are a little less flashy but most can be customized to your own preferences. My Brain Trainer also includes a free brain test before you get started, which determines the age and power of your brain. This is essential for knowing how much progress you’re making by playing a couple of months into playing these games and puzzles.

If you can spend an hour in the gym every other day you’ll have no problem completing the recommended 10-20 minute brain workout on this website or their 21-day basic training program that eases you into the routine.

Cognifit

Cognifit is a healthcare company that has quickly built up a strong audience for their collection of brain stimulation tools.

This is a slightly more technical option. They work with healthcare professionals and make their games available in 15 languages. The website features scientifically validated brain function stimulation tools designed to access and improve cognitive health. Cognifit’s games are consistently being updated to match the latest scientific discoveries about brain functionality, making sure none of the tasks are based on out of date science. You can find tasks, games and puzzles all with their own style designed to improve your perception, memory and attention among other factors.

Queendom

The best mental agility apps and websites are all a little bit addictive, and Queendom has that in spaces. Their website features a collection of personality tests and surveys, part of an impressive collection of brain tools.

The variety is one of the best aspects here. If industry norm brain games don’t quite cut it for you then there are a number of alternatives to keep your brain sharp such as testing your long term memory with fun trivia quizzes. If not just a website for keeping yourself mentally agile, but finding out a bit more about yourself.

If you find yourself introspective after your mental agility tasks then jump into their extensive collection of life tips and blogs covering issues including relationships and personal growth.

As we all become more reliant on Google to be our memory bank and technology to do everyday tasks for us, training our brains is only going to become more and more important. This means brain training apps and websites aren’t going anywhere fast, If you’re feeling a bit sluggish or forgetful, or just want something more stimulating in your morning routine than browsing Twitter then consider our suggestions.,

Mental well-being and technology are two sides of a coin. The advancements in technology have proved to be very life-altering for people but the virtual world has had mixed impacts on the implications of their mind as well as physical well-being.

Affecting almost all facets of an individual’s life, technology has also contributed to numerous new and advanced ways to tap into the sphere of mental health care.

The internet, as a whole, has brought the world closer and is, in turn, acting as a medium of spreading information about the mental health concerns and issues as well as courses of treatment from around the globe. Along with being a source of enlightenment, it has also proved to be a contributing factor towards the monitoring of various facets of an individual’s health through the day.

It is very upsetting to know that depression is the most commonly occurring mental illness at the moment. To cater to the wellbeing and health of the ever-rising population affected by mental illnesses and disorders, technical advancements are being applied.

The practical implications of technology on mental health can be seen by the following facets.

Many applications and devices have been introduced in the present times to measure and balance the stress levels and help in regaining the mental stability. A few of the innovations introduced to help individuals be on top of their game mentally are listed below-

PIP stress management device

This is a tiny device that is connected to a smartphone application. It is made in order to access the prevailing stress levels in a person’s body at any given point in the day.

It functions on the mechanism that the skin pores present on the surface of the fingertips of a person are sensitive of any change in the body. It has been proven that the skin pores are extremely sensitive at any given point in time to the levels of stress an individual.

The functionality of the application, to be used on a smartphone, is quite simple. The landing page of the application shows an image of a winter season. When the tiny device that is being held in between the fingers of an individual, the image slowly moves towards a summary effect depending on the stress levels of a person. When a person is able to manage his stress levels and bring it now to a normal frequency, the image on the application changes to a summer scene.

This application is a wonderful way to begin a journey towards better mental health and heightened mindfulness.

Various people take different times to de-stress and this device helps in inculcating a healthy habit of lowering stress and enabling good mental health.

Meditation and stress releasing applications-

Multiple applications have been introduced in the present times in order to inculcate a habit of meditation in people in order to help them regain their mental peace and have a healthy lifestyle in this time of unending stress and negative external inflictions.

One of the few examples of such applications is an application known as Calm. It is one of the best mental relaxation and stress relieving application available in the market at present. With a spectrum of services such as breathing exercises, guided meditations, bedtime stories, sleep meditation and, visual aid for relaxation.

Another such application is the Insight Timer. It has a similar outlook and can be used to relax at any time during the day. It has support meditations to relieve stress and provide comport caused by different stressors. Services such as guided sleep meditation, time-bound meditation, motivational lessons, etc. are what make this application a major hit among people looking for an option to relax and calm their minds for better sleep and increased consciousness.

Chatbots for accessing the mental health-

Patients may feel comfortable having a online health consultation with the doctor or maybe vary of it. Patients lso looking to book face to face health consultation can look up for the various hospitals. Chatbots are computer programs that replicate human conversation. At times, people suffering from any form of mental illness such as anxiety, stress or depression, have trouble talking to a person about their problems openly, even if it is a doctor.

Chatbots are a savior for such individuals or a robotic process. Although it does not compensate for the actual human connection, it is able to access the mental status of a person and provide multiple options for the improvement in their condition. Mental health or Mental disorder is a sensitive topic and people are more open to sharing personal facts with a Chatbot than an actual person.

Wearable Tracking Devices-

Devices such as Fitbit, Runtastic, and Garmin are available in the market to help access the stress levels and physical state of an individual in real-time.

Not only do they help in recording the physical activity done, calories burnt, heart rate, pulse rate, etc., they also help in tracking the reaction of the body in times of stressful situations and after rigorous exercise. Not only does it help in ascertaining the major stressors for an individual, but they also help in controlling the mental toll caused by turmoil and stressful situations.

All these advancements in technology are causing a tremendous expansion in the digital health market, which is predicted to surpass $379 billion by 2024. Some of this year’s best health tech inventions are already being used by doctors and patients around the country. Some are on the cusp of being launched.

We gather five promising medtech that are or will disrupt the healthcare industry in 2019:

1:- Cardiac monitoring undergarments

A couple years ago, transforming a piece of clothing into a remote cardiac monitoring tool seemed like a far-fetched concept, even for the most forward-thinking biomedical engineers. But medical device startup Nanowear is turning that idea into a reality.

Using embedded nanosensors, Nanowear transforms ordinary apparel such brassieres and t-shirts into smart fabric capable of capturing the electrical activity of the heartbeat.

In other words, a cardiac patient’s bra or t-shirt becomes a wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) machine, allowing their doctors to monitor them from afar. The garment called SimplECG ™ is powered by a special type of software called software as a medical device (SaMD).

“SaMD systems can be designed to use wearable sensors to collect multiple vital signs which can then be tracked using software. The software monitors and uses this data to enable targeted recommendations and alerts for both patients and clinicians.” explains Orthogonal, the software developer behind SimplECG.

In this case, SaMD takes the data captured by Nanowear’s biosensors and integrates it with a diagnostic cardiology management system, before transmitting it wirelessly via Bluetooth to a doctor’s computer or smartphone. This way, clinicians can make targeted recommendations in a matter of minutes. The product received FDA clearance and it’s currently in pilot trials.

2:- Sensory prosthetics

In 2019, prosthetics do more than replace missing limbs. Thanks to neuroprosthetic technology, amputees and paralysed patients are able to control their artificial legs or arms using their own brain. Now, researches at the University of Chicago (UChicago) are working on developing solutions to help these patients regain their sense of touch too.

Without sensory signals, a robotic arm will never be as functional as a human one. This is why the UChicago scientists aim to build brain-controlled prosthetics with sensory feedback using complex algorithms and electrode arrays, which are neural implant designed to decode the messages between the brain and the limb.

The researchers, who were recently awarded a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to start human trials, have already had a huge breakthrough; a tetraplegic patient who tested their system was able to feel tactile sensations on his prosthetic hand.

3:- A digital medical textbook

Modern medical students are starting to rely less on textbooks and dummies, and more on apps for learning and practicing. Recent data shows that over 70 percent of medical students use at least one medical app on a daily basis. A biomedical visualization company took notice of this trend and created the world’s first human visualization platform.

Using 3D body mapping technology to deliver 10,000 3D structures of the human body ever assembled, the BioDigital Human app by BioDigital, Inc. might be the closest thing to a living digital textbook.

Students can now take virtual tours of the body as easily as they navigate Google Maps. They can explore bones, muscles, and connective tissue in a comprehensive and highly accurate format. Plus, they can see at a glance health over 500 conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and injuries, watch their progression and test different treatments options. The app was updated this year with 3D interactive quizzes and tools to draw on and share models.

4:- Faster drug development with microchips

It’s no secret that it takes over a decade and costs billions of dollars to develop a new drug. But what most people don’t know is that testing methods are what often slow down the process even more.

Human tissue cells quickly die once removed from the body and placed into petri dishes. Animal trials, the second most common way to test drugs, can also be tricky due to biological differences. Thankfully, researchers at the Wyss Institute At Harvard University, found a method to make clinical trials faster, cheaper and more precise.

Their solution is to use something called “organs-on-chips.” These tiny chips made of polymer offer a molecular-scale view inside human organs. A technology called microfluidics enables them to mimic the structure and critical functions of organs such as kidney, brain, liver, bone marrow and lungs.

A lung-on-a-chip is already being used by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen division to treat pulmonary thrombosis. What makes the micro-devices so unique is their ability to imitate the cells in great detail, allowing doctors to create highly personalized drugs for specific groups of individuals.

“Imagine you have a group of asthmatics who are female, belong to a particular ethnic group, and all have a higher sensitivity to smoke inhalation,” explained Wyss Institute director, Donald E. Ingber. Inber and his team are currently working on building 10 different human organs-on-chips that would mimic the whole human body physiology.

5:- Blood tests to prevent complex diseases

In the recent years, blood tests have gone from mere guiding tools for doctors to valuable diagnostic solutions. Invasive, costly and sophisticated procedures used to predict cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and genetic disorders, such as Down Syndrome are slowly being replaced by cheap and highly-effective blood tests.

Take for instance the test developed by Stephen Quake, PhD, a professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford University in California. Dr. Quake created a test for pregnant women than can predict premature birth. And it does so with 80 percent accuracy. The test measures the activity of maternal, placental and fetal genes and scans for a handful of genes that are  predictive of preterm delivery, the largest cause of infant mortality in the United States.

Dr. Quake’s lab, which received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is also looking into blood tests for infectious diseases. At Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, on the other hand, researchers are creating a blood test to help predict cardiovascular disease.

Let’s do a quick recap. For medical students, mobile applications are making learning a walk. For doctors, smart undergarments allow them to monitor sensitive patients from a distance, while microchips that mimic human organs are helping pharma develop new and better drugs. Lastly, patients are benefiting from powerful tests capable of predicting heart disease and premature births. And we’re just half way through 2019, which means there’s even more exciting innovations to come.

Tech has plenty of applications in our daily lives and healthcare is not an exception. At-work safety and health have been immensely changed by recent technological developments and in the near future, we will most likely assist in a complete revolution in terms of at-work safety and healthcare programs. The worker today is more informed than ever before and they can benefit from an array of protective services when subjected to unfortunate workplace events. Blockchain technology has been widely embraced by the healthcare industry, although initially used for digital currencies. Companies that are at high risk for workplace injuries are searching for technologies that are due to decrease such events and to minimize injuries and fatalities.

How can tech improve workplace health and safety?

When thinking about technology integration into the workplace, most of us think about boosting employee productivity and profitability. However, technology can be successfully used to help enterprises gain more traction and develop strategies for a better implementation of safety and health measures in the workplace. All companies, regardless of their activity sector are mandated to follow safety and health standards and laws.

Today, employers have facile access to a series of applications that allow them to report incidents with more ease and keep a record of those. Software applications used in a series of corporations allow better employee safety training, monitoring and reporting process, as well as better employee compensation capabilities. Sophisticated software systems today seem to perfect the workplace environment in terms of employee health and safety by assessing risks in advance, inform those in decision-making positions what type of safety equipment is necessary for different high-risk tasks and so on.

Fast communication and real-time data technology

Technology can improve employee safety in a series of ways, mainly through real-time data and fast communication features. In several high-risk industries, employees are demanded to work in remote and isolate areas, which may represent health hazards on numerous occasions. Employees who are demanded to travel for work in high-risk areas may be subjected to theft, kidnaping, vandalism and political issues. Fast communication means and real-time data about their statuses allow employers to keep track of their employee’s safety, measure health and even find out their exact location. Until the recent technological advancements that we witnessed recently, all these would have been impossible.

According to multiple injury attorneys, such reporting tools have changed completely the way in which such employees carry their duties and how liable companies are in instances such as those described above.

Integration of 3D technology and visualization in the workplace

With all the recent technological advancements, 3D visualization technologies allow employees and their employers to grow aware of their surroundings and any potential life threats. Any given environment can now be scanned and analysed by this technology and any workplace instance can be recreated by using such technologies. Workers, as well as employers, will be fully aware of the dangers that they may expose themselves to and this will allow them to know in advance what type of protection and safety equipment will be necessary for to prevent workplace injuries.

Besides, this type of technology allows employees to know in real-time what is happening around, above and below them when working in risky conditions. This technology allows employees to avoid events where big loads are likely to fall on them and cause severe injuries. 3D imaging can also be recorded and these recordings can be used forensically in designing a safer workplace environment in the future.

Drones in the Workplace

While the healthcare industry is severely changed by unexpected technologies, like blockchain technology, the workplace environment finds its unexpected helpers as well. Drones, for example, are more than a tech novelty, they actively bring their fair contribution to a safer and healthier work environment. In the manufacturing industry where safety is a major concern, drones are used to access dangerous are where human workers may be at risk. Places that are too cold or too hot, areas located at a high altitude that cannot be accessed by humans, radiation areas of contaminated areas, all these can now be accessed with the help of these pieces of technology.

Drones can now back up all data that may be necessary to solve manufacturing issues and they can be successfully used to reinforce better communication between manufacturing facilities in case of emergencies. They can be used as warning systems when humans may be in danger and they don’t even realise it. The potential of this technology has been proven to be immense when it comes to workplace safety and health. Drones allow better compliance to all the standards and measures regarding safety and health matters.

Wearables, the gamechanger in health and safety

Wearables have been an area of innovation for quite a while now and in the state in which we find these technologies today, we can safely say that as they are now, smart wearable technology has hanged the way in which the healthcare and workplace environment is designed. Thanks to these pieces of technology, the employee today is able to enjoy higher levels of safety when handling dangerous tasks.

While in the healthcare sector, wearables have already changed the way in which physicians and experts approach each individual and their health concerns, workplace wearables have become widely adopted by various companies as well. Wearables are able to track heart rate and pulse, and they can send notifications to both the employee and management that they are working themselves. This may signal each employee to take a break or even to hydrate themselves and so on.

Smart glasses specifically developed for workplace environments allow biometrics measurements, as well as receiving and sending calls when necessary, without the prospect of the worker to endanger their well-being.

The adoption of widely available technology to reinforce a safer and healthier workplace environment will decrease the chances of fatalities in the workplace, especially in those high-risk industries and positions.

How much you care about your company’s occupational health and safety standards can make or break your bottomline.

Take the July, 2016 case where the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) slammed a GBP 1.7 million fine on a company for ignoring to repair a faulty power station that ended up hurting an electrician.

The HSE emphasized the need for every employer and assigned-employees to become more responsible about occupational health systems management. From environmental, health and safety (EHS) managers to accountants to cleaners, OH is an organization-wide effort.

So, what are the must-dos to ensure workplace safety blossoms, helping you save thousands in potential HSE fines, injury compensations, employee recruitment and training costs, as well as losses in terms of reputation scathing.

Quick Guide to Setting up Occupational Health Systems that Actually Work

Here are a couple of actionable tips to help kickstart an effective occupational health system.

1. Identify Your Why

You’ll want to fist identify your goals for occupational health system implementation. That way you can know for sure what you are aiming at achieving and during what time period. You can then set up milestones and clearly communicate expectations to all employees or users before roll-out.

2. Onboard the Leadership

A good plan that fails to pass in the executive meetings will not see the light of day.

A persuasive way to convince executives to adopt your workplace safety idea is to sell them on the benefits of occupational health systems. You are an accountant (or you can work with accountants) to account for potential cost savings the company could save if it deployed a good occupational health program.

3. Preparing for Roll-out

With approval, you can go on ahead and create plans to roll-out the workplace safety program.

You want the plans to be as detailed as possible. Be sure to include important considerations such as the date and time of trainings and where (department) then plan will roll out first.

You can then follow up with conducting situational exercises to map workflow using occupational health software. Using a workplace safety software solution can help you to easily log incident history, recorded incident causes, notes on injured employees and their recovery details, and more.

It can also help you synch your company goals with EHS regulations so you know if you need to improve on anything to become compliant. You can also keep digital records of safety trainings, regulation changes, and monitor benefits by comparing incident histories before and after implementing the software.

4. Assign A Starting Point

To many firms, a major stumbling block to implementing occupational health programs is not knowing where to start and how.

You can start by delegating a starting point. How can you do that?

Have an individual, group, department or branch that acts as a first-adopter. You can then use guidelines outlined by international standards organizations such as HSE, ISO and OSHA to actually set and get the ground work in motion.

With time, the rest of the firm can learn how to effectively use the occupational health and safety system from the adopter, spreading the best practices across the firm.

What Is E-health?

E-health is the provision of healthcare through electronic means. Apps, telecoms, email, text messages and online information number amongst the delivery methods.

Society is au fait with internet shopping, socialising, and information gathering and it’s taken to online health care as another useful social interaction. The research company Epocrates, states that 247 million Americans have downloaded a health app for personal use. Likewise, a survey by National Business Group on Health suggested 28% of companies offer tele-care options to staff and expected that it would jump to 48% in 2015.

What Are The Benefits?

• Flexibility

One of the biggest draws to e-health is its flexibility and how easily it fits into a busy lifestyle. More often we expect electronic communications, simply because it’s convenient.

The flexibility of e-health in the workplace means workers can fit in a consultation from their desk between meetings, they can order their medications by email, and use their app to ensure they don’t develop backache from sitting too long. Fitting health into the working day has benefits for both the employer and employee.

Video: statdoctors.com – Mobile Health For Businesses

• Time

E-health supports the workplace because the time saved enhances productivity.

Less travelling time dedicated to doctor’s appointments and prescription collection means employees can balance their professional life with their personal life. Modern businesses know by now that the two must co-exist.

If it takes a week to access a one-on-one appointment the worker can be absent for that amount of time plus convalescence on the other side. E-health, such as a tele-appointment or ordering online medications, can speed up diagnosis and treatment options – often garnering results within a day.  One under-looked aspect of e-health’s time-saving ability is that an employee can spend more of it with a healthcare professional. Most face-to-face appointments last ten minutes with the remainder of the morning off devoted to travelling and waiting. That wasted time can be committed to the healthcare solution instead making for a healthier, happier workforce.

• Feeling Valued

When businesses offer their employees a health service or allow them to use one in work time, employees feel valued. For example, offering a free tele-counselling service could lead to leaps in staff retention – making it of particular value in fields where skilled staff are valuable. It’s not always about the salary.

• From a employee perspective

E-health, used at home or in the workplace, can cut down on absence from sickness, absence due to care-giving duties, and ill health brought about by stress over sickness absence.

The Disadvantages

• Potential for lawsuits

When a company encourages or offers e-health solutions for employee well-being those employees may feel they have no choice but to take this option. They may feel they shouldn’t or can’t see a health professional in real time. When employees feel they don’t have the right to see a doctor it could potentially backfire on a company in terms of a lawsuit.

• Some experts hold concerns over e-health

They believe that an absence of personal visits may result in second rate diagnoses and treatment. They suggest e-health provides an impersonal service and does not support patients as well as they could and should be. This may result in longer periods of absence or undiagnosed illnesses that infect co-workers.

• Reliable information is a barrier to e-health.

If a company is recommending and promoting e-health it needs to be from a recognised source. The internet, apps and other medical sources are not all credible nor do they have completeness of information.

The Internet is largely uncontrolled, but two emerging controls are the Health on the Net (HON) code, which offers an approval system for sites that have agreed to ‘quality principles’ and the Health Internet Ethics (Hi-Ethics) who have created the “e-Health Code of Ethics” in response to confidentiality, reliability and privacy issues.

The Future

Video: healthexpress.co.uk – The Future of e-Health

No doubt e-health is here to stay, but it depends on how it’s used as to whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages in the workplace. For the individual, e-health is a useful tool enabling easy access to medications, simple booking systems and information, but companies that push their employees towards it, so they are able to save time, money and productivity, may feel a backlash.

There is still a way to travel on the e-health road, but it’s one the workplace needs to travel if they intend to keep their workforce productive.

Currently e-health is an option but in the future with our over-stretched health resources, it may be the only viable option. Now is the time to get savvy about e-health in the office.