The SMART vision of substitutable healthcare applications holds many benefits for app developers, healthcare providers, patients, healthcare institutions and public health.
App Developers
- Free and open source tools and resources simplify app creation
- Open App Gallery exposes innovative apps to potential customers
- Reduce cost and complexity of integrating with customers’ EHR systems
Healthcare Providers and Patients
- Apps empower users, rather than only technology vendors or government committees, to decide which health IT products are beneficial and valuable
- Add new capabilities to existing systems, for example to visualize risks, trends, and trajectories
- Integrate new data into systems, mashing up clinical records with external data sources and incorporating new flows of data from sensors, devices, and patient reports
Healthcare Institutions
- Improve return on EHR investment by streamlining internal EHR customization projects
- Simplify the integration of best of breed components into existing systems
- Ability to easily draw on a library of innovate apps encourages market competition on quality, cost, and usability
Public Health
- Apps can transfer ideas, functionality, and workflow all in one package – a good app, distributed widely, could reshape practice overnight
- Decision support can be updated without the need to customize for each EHR, supporting rapid response during outbreaks and as guidelines change