Editor’s Note: Each Friday the Barton Blog highlights new healthcare technology including smartphone applications, medical devices, and other tools.
Our New Tech Friday series has highlighted smartphone applications, such as iTriage® and MedXCom, that were created by independent companies as a resource for both providers and patients. This week, we are looking at free iPhone and iPad application designed for patients by a major healthcare system. The Mayo Clinic has launched a comprehensive mobile application that provides patients with a wealth of information. To start, users have access to Mayo Clinic’s wide array of online content, including articles, books, brochures, and magazines. That content in itself would make it a valuable application, but it does a lot more. Patients can access their medical record, order prescription refills, and learn more about their conditions using the app’s “My Health” feature. The “My Care Team” section allows patients to communicate with their physicians and other care team members directly via messages and notifications.
Mayo Clinic has always put the needs of patients first, and we built this mobile health application based on what our patients said they would find useful to enhance the way they connect with us,” Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel, M.D., Vice Dean of eHealth, Mayo Clinic, said in a press release. Within the walls of the facility is where the application does its coolest trick. Patients can navigate through Mayo Clinic’s expansive campuses using the app’s built-in map feature. With each turn, the user can see where they are within the facility in real time. Check out the video below for an example of how this works (starts around the 1:30 minutes mark). And if that wasn’t enough, the Mayo Clinic Patient app also performs the job of a travel guide. The “Our Locations” feature lists restaurant, hotel, shopping, and entertainment options near the system’s major campuses in New York, Minnesota, and Arizona. As healthcare organizations continue to find new ways to engage patients through technology we can expect to see more applications like the Mayo Clinic Patient app. Stay tuned.
