The Second Wave Of Clinical Mobility: Strategic Solution Investments For Mobile Point Of Care

The highly collaborative and mobile nature of clinical teams makes the strategic investment in clinical mobility solutions essential to meet the intense demands being placed on healthcare providers today. Many of the same drivers of health reform in the United States and abroad — the need to improve access, quality of care, patient safety, and clinician efficiency to treat more patients cost-effectively — are setting in motion the second wave of clinical mobility. Sometimes referred to as mobile point of care (MPOC) computing, today's initiatives enable clinicians to use various mobile devices to access electronic health records (EHRs) and other clinical information systems at the bedside, in the exam room, or from wherever the clinician accesses the Internet.

The next 10 years represent the second wave of clinical mobility. With the consumerization of technology and greater uptake of mobile devices by clinicians who want to use them as they care for their patients, mobile applications will evolve from providing basic view only to bidirectional flows of information enabling better decision making at the point of care and more synchronous communication and collaboration between care team members.