Use of Quick Response Codes in Healthcare Research Paper

Use of Quick Response Codes in Healthcare - Research Paper Example The client can then carry it with him or her on the go. Some healthcare facilities have taken this technology to the healthy living segment. This has allowed their clients to access healthy food without having to shop around. Inova Health System entered into a partnership with farmer markets in the local area to encourage consumers of healthcare to shop for their produce locally (Waters, 2012). To aid the community’s â€Å"Buy Fresh Buy Local† initiative, Inova created a Quick Response code that, on scanning, retrieves the phone’s mapping program and gives directions to a local market instantly. Healthcare facilities can also use the QR codes to schedule appointments. Athens Regional Health Services recently made mammogram bookings become much easier (Waters, 2012). The facility launched a Quick Response code that has the capability of linking to a site where the client can easily and instantly book an appointment for a mammogram. As with most technological advan ces in the healthcare sector, the QR codes do have their drawbacks. While it is one of the most significant occurrences in today’s internet-savvy community in the healthcare sector, it does have some considerable drawbacks. The popularity of Quick Response has been growing rapidly around the globe with more cell phone users switching to smart phones from the conventional cell phone. This has seen an increase in iPhone and Blackberry use around the world. The first advantage of using Quick Response codes is that they can read practically everything that appears online (Waters, 2012). The camera on the iPhone has now become a link to the online world, including hospital facility websites using a QR... This essay stresses that in the case of the elderly members of the community seeking advice on the use of QR codes, there is no real value in using Quick Response codes that cannot be done using other conventional means. There is neither exclusive content that they could access using the codes nor special healthcare rate for using the service. Since the main aim for QR code use in healthcare is to point people to resources, using SMS messages and more marketing material for the elderly generation would be better. These Quick response codes also represent a hassle, especially for a generation that is not very tech-savvy. Even for those with passable tech-literacy, it is possible to download and install Quick Response readers to the smart phone and uninstall them almost immediately. This is because their use can be time consuming with variable outcomes. In most cases, especially during pilot programs for QR codes, the codes take the clients to the normal website rather the mobile-optim ized one. This paper makes a conclusion that Quick Response codes have numerous good reasons for use in the healthcare sector. However, the majority of facilities utilizing them have done so without applying enough thought on its strategy. For the right audience, in this case the tech-savvy generation, the medium is appropriate and timesaving with lower cost and availability of valuable content. However, for the elderly community, it is a hectic task and, in fact, threatens to make hospital visits more cumbersome for them.