emerging technologies and their applications in mental health
As I went through the course, I learned about emerging technologies and their applications in mental health. They include mHealth technology. This comprises the portable computers, smartphones, and tablets that are utilized in healthcare settings to assess the patient’s needs, process, and disseminate patient information to authorized care providers. For instance, currently, various Smartphone apps have been developed to enhance self-care for different health conditions, including depression and hypertension. Besides, mobile technologies provide opportunities to address multiple healthcare disparities. For instance, the increased utilization of this technology enhances access to health care among the disadvantaged population, such as the rural communities. Also, I learned about the various risks which are associated with the application of healthcare technologies. They include data security risks, such as cyber-attacks. Thus, this information has enabled me to achieve my course objectives.
Besides, I intend to apply the information that I have acquired during the course to ensure the efficient transition into practice, and quality and safe care delivery. In that regard, I aim to apply various emerging healthcare technologies such as mHealth technology to help the disadvantaged groups such as the low-income earners and rural-based communities to access healthcare services easily. For instance, depressive patients can use depressive apps such as Depressive CBT to manage their health condition, reach various qualified healthcare professionals to give them medical advice, without meeting them physically. Secondly, I will use mobile technologies to offer patient education. I will therefore utilize the social media platforms and messaging applications to send a message to the targeted audience. This will help in improving self-care management in society and thus improving health. Lastly, in my future practice, I will embrace various measures to enhance data privacy and security. For instance, I educate the patients on how to use active security codes and passwords to safeguard their information from unauthorized access. Besides, I will employ some effective safety measures such as data encryption to protect patient information in electronic health records. Thus, through these measures, I will ensure quality and safe patient care.