M - HEALTH and E – HEALTH

IN VIRTUAL PATIENT MONITORING

M-HEALTH and E-HEALTH SYSTEM IN MEDICAL FIELD

Definition

The fast development of informations and communications technology has encouraging

innovation and changes that involves experiments in various fields, including the health sector
which implements the use of computers in its activities or commonly known as E-Health.

E-Health or Electronic Health is the use of informations and communications technology that
includes electronics, telecommunications, computers and informatics to process various types of
medical information, in order to carry out clinical services (diagnosis or therapy), administrations
and educations. In E-health, distance is not a problem anymore because all activities are carried
out via data connections and in real time.

The M-Health application is to simplify and assist patients and health workers to carry out post-
diagnosis care of a patient for a disease, and this conveniences is in the form of efficiency in
terms of time and cost. Application-based M-Health on smartphones is considered one of the
technological advances that should be accepted by the wider community.

Simple E-Health System Diagram

In simple terms, the E-Health system consists of numbers of "Medical Stations" which are
connected to each other in a network (Network). A medical station itself can consist of: :

1. A computer with software on it

2. A patient interface device
3. A number of biomedical instruments (depending on needs)
4. A user interface device (along with the input output device used)
5. Available telecommunication networks and equipment.
Basically, every medical station can connect with other medical stations on:

1. Real-time (synchronously), for example: during a teleconsultations between a general

practitioner and a specialist regarding an emergency case of a patient.
2. Store and forward, sending an information and reading it at different time, for example in
a short presentation of how many patients in a health center for a month along with
important information in brief.

Benefits and Problems of Using E-Health Systems.

This E-Health system is very beneficial for the health and medicine field today, because to keep
up with the high activity and delivery of detailed and fast informations, requires the application
of a computerized technology. Here are other benefits of implementing the E-Health system in
medical field :

1. Increased efficiency or decreased costs.

2. Improving the quality of health services.
3. Proof of diagnosis through scientific evaluation.
4. Empowerment of patients and consumers.
5. Encouraging better relationships between patients and health workers.
6. Education for health workers and the community.
7. Encouraging the growth of communication and information exchange between health
service institutions.
8. Expanding the scope of health services.

In implementing this system, it is necessary to control several problems or potential problems

that will definitely arise during its application so that it can run well and planned. Here are the
problems that needs to be resolved:

1. Readiness of human resources

2. Readiness of the organizations involved
3. Work ethics
4. Technological developments and availability of infrastructure
 5. Bureaucratic problems
6. The relationship between consumers and health workers

Examples of Application of E-Health in the World of Health.

Electronic Prescription System

It is a computerized drug prescription writing system, also known as E-Prescription, where in

this system doctors can write and send prescriptions to the pharmacy using electronic media
instead of handwriting and the use of paper media.

This system is designed to avoid adverse drug reactions that are usually caused by the wrong use
of drugs during the handling of health personnel, which in fact can be prevented if they are
executed more carefully.

These errors can be divided into 4 phases :

1. The recipe writing phase

2. Recipe reading phase
3. Preparation phase until prescription submission by pharmacy staff
4. The drug use phase by the patient

How the Electronic Prescription System Works

This electronic prescription consists of hardware and software, the hardware used is a computer
and the software used is an electronic prescription software with an Adverse Drug Reaction
detection module.

One computer is used as a server. The server is connected to other computers using a hub on the
LAN (Local Area Network). The software is only installed on the server computer and this
system can be used on one, two or many computers.

The software in this electronic prescription system for Adverse Drug Reaction detection simply
has the following functions:
 1. Record all patient data which can be easily retrieved
2. Writing paperless electronic prescriptions and can be sent directly to the pharmacy, so
that patients can go directly to the pharmacy to get the medicine.
3. Assisting the doctors in writing prescriptions by providing information about the drugs to
be prescribed and detecting if there is an interaction between the drugs in the prescription
by giving a warning before the drug is sent to the pharmacy.
4. Recording drug usage data
5. Create reports faster and easier

With a system like this, it will actually make it easier for a doctor to work and avoid mistakes in
administering a prescription that can cause harm to patients, so as to improve the quality and
quality of health services.

Example of M-HEALTH Application

Chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, can be managed with the support of mobile
applications or better known as “mobile apps” which can be downloaded on smartphones.
Applications on smartphones can also help diabetes mellitus patients to control their fitness and
health (Brzan et al, 2016).

The use of mobile application devices to improve health, health services or health-related
research has been known as M-Health (Health Resources and Service Administration mHealth in
Conway et al, 2015). Many smartphones and tablets applications are available to manage
diabetes mellitus. The most common features are the calculation of insulin doses and medication
reminders, then to view data (glucose test results), communication, recording food intake and
monitoring body weight (Arnhold M in Conway et al, 2015).

Conclusion

The general purpose of the mHealth application is to simplify and assist patients and health
workers to carry out post-diagnosis care of patient for a disease, this conveniences is in the form
of efficiency in terms of time and cost. Application-based M-Health on smartphones is
considered one of the technological advances that should be accepted by the wider community.
The shortcomings of the M-Health application itself are based on certain factors, some of which
are demographic factors: age and economy as well as lack of trust and patient's compliance with
the smartphone application. When patients already have the application on their mobile device
but are not used optimally and this affects the effectiveness of M-Health application in
therapeutic care.

The mHealth application is also very useful as a patient's medical record when visiting formal
health services (hospitals, clinics, health centers), this is intended to be more conclusions. The
M-Health application is a breakthrough to provide more sustainable health services. The
integration of M-Health technology in existing information systems has the potential to further
empower diabetes mellitus patients, improve the quality of community nursing services as well
as efficiency in terms of time and cost, but the lack of mHealth in its application is still hindered
by elderly, middle and lower communities and the incompleteness of the available application
features.

The application of a computer system in medical field can improve quality of a health service,
because by using this technology every job can be done more quickly, carefully and planned.

Computer technology is also very helpful for medical personnels to communicate with each
other and provide references to one another when handling medical problems for patients.