ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on smartphone platforms and their role in providing mobile healthcare. The choice of mobile operating system for smartphones is limited to four major players, namely, iOS from Apple, Android from Google, Windows from Microsoft, and BlackBerry OS from Research in Motion. The influence of smartphones on healthcare is becoming significant with increasing sophistication of mobile technologies coupled with development of novel, affordable, and portable diagnostic devices. Closely connected with mobile health is the term telehealth, which can be roughly defined as a healthcare system in which telephones are used as a means of communication between doctors and patients. Mobile health applications play a vital role as they provide the interface between a trained health worker and a hospital with telehealthcare facility. The promise of high-speed and reliable data communication through mobile networks has the potential to make telehealthcare a more realistic proposition.
