Healthcare Mobile Apps Made Easy

"The app business is very challenging because the iTunes app store is growing so quickly that it's really the new apps that get the most traffic for older apps it's much more difficult," says Oehler. "You have to continue your marketing efforts to keep your app out there."

Oehler, a smartphone fan since 2007, offers the following steps for healthcare marketers looking to create an app to promote products and services:

1. Have a vision for the design and reasonable expectations of what can be accomplished
2. Research the wide range of possible partnerships with developers
3.  Develop a mock-up of what the app through software or diagrams
4. Collaborate knowledge of content with practicable functionality

The result of the ID Podcasts Mobile Viewer app includes recognition from the infectious disease international community. Many international scholars and physicians access the app and previously the USF information was only accessible to those with desktop computers, says Oehler. He has also found from personal experience, many of the trainees he interviews have found the app useful.

"The marketplace for apps is constantly changing at first we were one of a handful and now that I check there are many more to see," says Oehler. "I support anyone who wants to go and make an app because I utilize them and I recommend them to others in medicine. It only helps the medical community."

Maybe it's time I swap my dated dinosaur for a sophisticated smartphone.

Readers - what do you think? What benefits are available for healthcare smartphone users and marketers? Discuss.