A policy brief about mobile health by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forecasted the number of mobile health apps will increase at a rate of 25 percent for the foreseeable future. The apps are used not only by consumers, but also healthcare professionals to access patient records, payment options, medical information and more. With so much data available to physicians, delivering the information in an easily digestible format so it can be used while consulting with a patient or discussing a particular case with colleagues, can introduce more efficiency and improve the delivery of care. The IBM MobileFirst application development portfolio is designed to create and introduce apps to market quickly, and that is why PLM, one of the oldest publishers of medical information in Latin America, chose this platform.
The goal for PLM was to quickly develop the vast volumes of information it has on diseases, treatments and medication into 35 mobile apps that can be used by clinicians as a reliable reference guide.The data from millions of treatment decisions which include dosing information, prescription interactions, and effect on different patient characteristic such as age and weight can provide invaluable information to physicians.
The IBM MobileFirst platform was able to gather the data and deliver the apps quickly, giving healthcare professionals access to the latest information on different health conditions including cardiology, fertility, gynecology, obesity, oncology, pediatrics and more.
Worklight also gave PML an open standard so its mobile initiative can be accessed by anyone without compatibility issues, while at the same time providing a robust security protocol. The speed in which the apps were developed gave PML quicker access to market reducing the time from months to weeks.
IBM Worklight mobile development platform features and benefits include:
- The ability to develop rich HTML5, hybrid, and native applications for all supporting modern devices using native code, a bi-directional WYSIWYG, and standard web technologies and tools.
- Maximize code sharing while defining custom behavior and styling guidelines that match the target environment.
- Access device APIs using native code or standard web languages over a uniform PhoneGap bridge use both native and standard web languages within the same app to balance development efficiency and a rich user experience.
- Leverage the growing ecosystem of 3rd-party tools, libraries and frameworks such as JQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch and Dojo Mobile.
- Implement Runtime Skins to build apps that automatically adjust to environment guidelines such as form factor, screen density, HTML support and UI input methods.
"By transforming our products for today’s mobile world, PLM has been able to improve access to timely, accurate information that is critical to our users, no matter what device or platform they use. As our business continues to grow, IBM can support our evolving mobile initiatives, including the integration of data analytics to further improve medical decisions across individual practices, hospitals and laboratories every day," said Antonio Carrasco, general manager of PLM.
