Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 More industries and sectors that have ‘front of house’ or public interaction at their core are discovering that text messaging is a useful tool that can improve communications immeasurably. In particular, text messaging is a promising new technology for the health care field that is likely to see increasing adoption in the coming years. There is now convincing data that text messaging can influence health behaviour and decisions as well. Texting is regarded as a preferred route of communication and allows patients greater access to their doctors or GPs’ surgeries. And it’s not just restricted to younger patients either – an increasing number of older patients are getting to grips with text messaging, so the use of mobile phones is generic across the population, regardless of the age group. The current use of text messaging within health care can be broken down into 5 segments: 1. Appointment and medication reminders Missed appointments waste not only time, but money too. It can be all too easy to forget about an appointment, particularly if it is one that could be regarded as a ‘routine check-up’. However, by incorporating a text messaging reminder service, GPs and medical centres can quickly reduce the number of missed appointments, and ‘no show’ rates can drop by as much as 10%. The system can also be used to remind patients to take their medication. This is particularly relevant with patients who suffer from dementia, where an increasing inability to recall when to perform set tasks such as taking medicine could have serious consequences. A simple message using SMS could prompt the right course of action and ensure that the patient takes their medication on time, every time. Even something as basic as reminders to take an oral contraceptive can be set up quickly and easily. 2. Preventative health Preventative medicine is far more cost effective than treatment after the fact. So for those who are at risk of contracting serious or chronic illnesses due to poor health management, SMS messaging can play a crucial part in preventative health campaigns. For example, if a woman is at particular high risk of developing breast cancer due to a family history or faulty genetic markers, then text messages reminding her when she is due for a mammary scan could be a critical factor in early detection or preventing the development of cancer. Other preventative health campaigns work well in larger groups, such as smoking cessation group texts. In dentistry, text messages to remind people of the basics of oral hygiene can go a long way to prevent long-term health issues such as gingivitis and tooth decay, and even mouth cancer. 3. Population awareness Text messaging allows a medical practice not only to contact individuals, but to send out a generic message to a much larger group. So for example if an area is particularly poor in taking up the MMR inoculation jab then a message can be sent out to parents with children who have not been given the jab to provide information on why it is important and how to ensure their child is immunised. 4. Education around diseases, conditions and procedures Following on from the previous point, text messaging can be used effectively to educate patients on diseases, conditions and procedures too. One of the biggest successes in the US has been the Text4Baby campaign, where expectant mothers supplied their due date to a database and then received texts containing important prenatal information. The result was a more educated population who were given ownership of their own health management by the simple process of providing simple, easy to understand advice. 5. Pain management Finally, the potential for text messaging to play a key role in pain management is enormous, particularly in helping to prevent dependency on prescribed painkillers, which can be a serious issue for those who are dealing with long-term conditions such as cancer. Text messaging can help patients to stay informed about early signs of drug dependency, and even help patients to consider alternative forms of pain management. The potential applications of text messaging within the medical sector are enormous, and it has been shown that patients respond well to SMS messaging. If incorporated into the future model for the health sector, it could potentially not only save a huge amount of money, but could also save lives too. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Author: James Spillane James is a BSc Physics grad, attending Imperial College London and becoming interested in cryptocurrency shortly after. His previously published work can be found on Rakeback.com and more recently InsideBitcoins.com and DeFicoins.io. Currently James is a content editor and writer covering Bitcoin and DeFi related news, as well as enjoying … View full profile ›More by this author:Cryptocurrency Fan Tokens Are The Top Crypto Gainers TodayMetaverse P2E Games Token IBAT Lists Today on Pancakeswap 16:00 UTC / GMTBC.GAME Releases An NFT, The Degen Pass