Abstract
Although many areas of modern healthcare have adopted very sophisticated and technologically advanced innovations such as MRI scanners, proton therapy, genetic testing, and multitudes of other innovations that we consider miracles of modernmedicine, the tools used for communications, coordination, and care delivery by healthcare teams remain far behind current “state-of-theart.” It is likely true that you would be hard pressed to find alpha-numeric paging systems being used in a modern business or industry, yet these decades-old communication tools often remain the foundation of many hospital and healthcare system frontline communications. If secure, closed-loop communications, as well as a highly efficient workforce, were not critically important to the outcomes and performance of healthcare teams, it would be understandable that the healthcare industry would be toward the back of the adoption line for newly available technologies. With very low profit margins1 and patient outcomes hanging in the balance, it would seem to be in the best interest of healthcare systems to rapidly and readily adopt the most advanced communication and care-coordination solutions available to optimize outcomes. It is the goal of this chapter to lay out the benefits, considerations, and provide a curated list of several potential solutions currently available for mobile healthcare communications and scheduling applications. Hopefully with this information, the process of selecting and implementing a new mobile healthcare communication or scheduling solution will be an efficient and successful process.