A hospital in Taiwan has embraced the use of smartphones and tablets to bring convenience to patients.
Patients of the National Taiwan University Hospital can now take advantage of a new mhealth smartphone app that was developed in conjunction with Taiwan Broadband communications, which can help them to obtain information and pay their medical bills.
Medical registration fees can now be processed through mobile payments by users of the app.
Patients can also use the mhealth application to search for more information about certain types of medical issues, such as prescribed medication. The app is a kind of combination of data content and banking. Its release was just announced by the National Taiwan University Hospital at a press conference.
The hospital has been working on the development of this mhealth app for a number of months.
Also involved in the creation of this mhealth service was Taiwan Cooperation Bank (TCB), which provided a number of the opportunities for making mobile payments to cover the registration fees for the hospital and its services. The hope is that this will help to streamline a number of the processes that patients must complete, such as payment transactions and discovering information about their care and treatments.
The vice superintendent of the hospital, Wang Ming-chu, explained that the mhealth app is also designed to help to make patient information more accessible for making appointments, completing examinations, and writing and monitoring prescriptions. Wang stated that many elderly patients and individuals who have chronic diseases could receive the greatest benefit from the use of this new mobile health service because they require a larger number of appointments, hospital visits, and prescriptions.
Wang said “With the TCB mobile banking app’s medical feature, patients are saved the hassle of waiting in line to pay fees. In addition, the app provides patients easy access to three-month clinic visit records, prescribed medication and usage guides.”
The vice general manager of TCB, Chen Mei-tsu went on to explain that the mhealth app was designed with privacy and security in mind. It takes the added step of requiring users to apply for passwords that are certificate based and issued at the branches of the bank.
