As a primer discussion for the 2013 mHealth Summit, mHealth News (@mhealth_news) is hosting a Twitter Chat to discuss the future of mHealth and its role in shaping global health. Taking place at 1 p.m. ET Monday, December 2, the chat will use the hashtag #mHealth13 (the official hashtag for the summit). You can also participate in the chat through the #mHealth13 chat room.
Here's what we will discuss:
- What benefits of #mHealth are you most excited about?
- How can we expand the global reach of #mHealth in the future?
- How can #mHealth contribute to #socialgood by increasing worldwide access to health information?
- What is your #globalhealth vision for #mobiletech leading up to 2015 and beyond? #socialgood
As you consider your thoughts on these questions, here's a short list of five things I think are exciting about mHealth, and why I think it has a bright future.
1. It's addictive.
Joseph Kvedar, MD, writes on KevinMD.com about a medical trial involving SMS messaging, in which two things resonated with him: A number and a suggestion. The number was 60 percent, which was how many people in an underserved community had access to SMS capable devices.
The suggestion? Why are you using SMS? How about an app? Kvedar was asked this by a patient in the trial. Mobile phones that can collect biometric information or elicit an engaging conversation about health-related issues are commonplace on almost all social strata. This represents a boon for researchers and clinicians alike.
Even better? People like using them. Turns out if you almost compulsively photograph and Instagram every meal you eat, it's pretty easy to channel that enthusiasm in to a medical context.
2. It reaches people.
Research shows 95 million adults used smartphones for health-related purposes this year. In its findings, Manhattan Research said "38 percent of online smartphone users agree the device is 'essential' for finding health and medical info." People are addicted to their phones, and they are increasingly less bashful about using them for medical purposes.
Another big factor in all this? Anonymity and sharing. Getting people to report accurately about health matters is a notoriously difficult task for doctors. Everybody lies, says House, MD. That being the case, it's good to hear mHealth is "increasing the amount of self-disclosure of intimate information."
3. It reaches people a lot.
Beyond spanning the digital divide, mHealth is trouncing a slew of barriers between patients, providers and care.
I've written about how telehealth and mHealth in Afghanistan have practical applications here in the United States. On Twitter, Nick van Terheyden, MD (@DrNic1) pointed out to me that mHealth means "accessing previously unavailable info from another country or continent, anytime, anyplace, and almost anywhere."
4. It will reduce work and errors.
With clinical decision support (CDS), a doctor can see previous outcomes of a treatment and use them to take a more educated course of action. Joseph Kim, MD, who runs the website medicalsmartphones.com, told me that automated CDS "already exists for things like radiology and cardiology," and is coming soon to a phone near you.
More and more patients think nothing of snapping a picture of that rash and sharing it with a doctor, so integrating some automated CDS into a telehealth consultation makes sense. Kim shrugs off some recent "bad press on skin melanoma apps and their accuracy," and says that "as these automated systems become 'smarter,' they will be more clinically beneficial."
As doctors are being tasked with seeing more patients than ever before, automated CDS will be a welcome hand. "Assistance of these CDS tools that are highly accurate, validated and predictive" will make for faster, safer and more efficient workflows, Kim says.
5. It's worldwide.
mHealth's universality makes it a serious player in the healthcare world. From AIDS prevention in Africa to maternal health projects in India, mHealth has taken root anywhere that mobile phones abound – which is everywhere (mobile phone use in Kenya is at around 90 percent). Even as people clamor for the newest and best smartphones in developed markets, generations-old phones still provide as-yet-unheard-of levels of connectivity to millions.
Piggybacking on other innovations, "mHealth programs are becoming increasingly integrated" with mobile banking and financial applications. We're witnessing a very decentralized spread of basic technology that can address not only health, but several of the social determinants that influence it as well.
These are just five of my reasons to be excited. I have no doubt that you have other reasons, or maybe even disagree with mine. I look forward to discussing the role mHealth will play in the future, and its importance in promoting social good worldwide with you at 1 p.m. Monday, December 2. See you there!