In Fairhaven, Washington, Dr. Patrick J. Gagnon, a radiation oncologist, amazes patients when going over their scans; all he does is smoothly whip out his iPhone and view the scans on an application called Mobile MIM. The app (created by MIM Software) is essentially a portable “diagnostic medical instrument” (Eisenberg), coming in slightly-different versions for doctors and patients. Not only does the app make it incredibly easy to store scans and/or share them between patients, doctors, and even different hospitals, but the pay-as-you-go routine makes it efficient and completely affordable as well. For example, it takes no more than $1 (Eisenberg) for a scan to be uploaded onto the app, ready for unlimited usage. This step taken by MIM Software ensures the app’s popularity amongst not only wealthy doctors, but low-to-medium income individuals as well.

Although the application did not receive clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for two and a half years, the creation and growing popularity of Mobile MIM has indeed paved the way for more medical applications in the future. Dr. Iltifat Husain, editor in chief of iMedicalApps, stated in a New York Times article that with the involvement of the FDA, demand will surely increase for these apps from both doctors and patients alike.

I personally sense the establishment of future mobile-medical enterprises.