There's a quiet revolution (or maybe "evolution" is more accurate) going on in the healthcare industry.Over the last ten years over 250,000 mobile healthcare apps have appeared on the scene - and that's only the beginning. According to estimates from Zion Market Research the market for mHealth (mobile health) apps will top $100 billion worldwide in 2018. With smartphones and tablets becoming an essential part of our lives it makes sense to provide apps for those devices that can help organize your medical records, monitor your health, alert you to a possible medical problem, and help connect you to a healthcare professional.So how do smartphones function as medical devices? The cameras, microphones, and other sensors built into smartphones are improving all the time and can already be used to help diagnose certain illnesses The microphone for example, can be used to help detect asthma and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder). There are also apps that use the camera and flash to diagnose blood disorders such as iron and hemoglobin deficiency. Smartphones can even by used to detect conditions such as osteoporosis by using the phone's motion sensor.Doctors and medical researchers are also turning to smartphone technology as an efficient way to handle electronic health data.

Having patients collect data relating to their medical condition by using a smartphone app can make it much easier for a physician to form a diagnosis and to follow up on the effectiveness of the treatment the patient is undergoing. And that same data collected from many different patients can be a gold mine for medical research personnel, providing them with a massive database of clinical information never available before.This book covers just a few of the many different types of mobile health apps available on the market today. Dozens more (including many that offer new and more advanced technology) are being added everyday. Consider this book a sampler - and, if you're interested in building a mobile health care app yourself, you'll also find some introductory information about building your own app. Welcome to the future of healthcare!.