The Aetna Foundation, the charitable arm of the Hartford-based insurance giant, is looking to make the cellphone the centerpiece of efforts to improve public health access with a three-year, $4 million Digital Health Initiative.
Underserved populations, by their definition, don't have much contact (if any) with a healthcare provider. But many of them do have cellphones.
Earlier this month the Aetna Foundation awarded more than $1.2 million in grants to 23 recipients in 13 states who are using digital tools to address public health concerns among vulnerable and minority populations.
The key, says Garth Graham, MD, the foundation's president, is to "reach people where they are" with information they can and will use.
"The Aetna Foundation has long been committed to addressing underserved populations," he said during a recent interview with mHealth News, sister publication of Healthcare Payer News. "And mobile health tools are key components in how people are managing their healthcare. We're starting to see increased penetration (of mHealth) into underserved communities. More and more people are starting to look up health information on their smartphones."
That statement is backed by recent research from the Pew Center, which found that some 31 percent of cellphone owners used the device to look up health information in 2012, a marked increase from 17 percent in 2010. According to Pew, 91 percent of all American own cellphones, 56 percent of which are smartphones.
Cellphone use is even higher among minorities and vulnerable populations, Graham said. Those populations – African-American, Latino, low-income – are more likely to use their phones to look up health information, he said. And they're the ones who need that information.
"This increase in mobile device usage offers enormous potential to transform the way that we manage our health and wellness and enables minority communities to regularly monitor behaviors that may be impacting their health," Graham wrote in a recent Huffington Post blog. "I'm encouraged that vulnerable and underserved populations can gain significant health and wellness benefits from these advances."
"We aren't trying to go after the worried well," he added in his talk with mHealth News. "We are trying to go after the hard-to-reach."
Among the recipients highlighted by Graham are a K-12 digital health curriculum covering diet and nutrition, exercise and fitness and disease prevention and management that enables students to communicate with each other and access information on their smartphone or mobile device.
Another program, the Cleveland-based Institute for eHealth Equity, is pushing two-way text messages on exercise, wellness, disease prevention and lifestyle change to African-American women between the ages of 19 and 55 through the faith-based community.
"Our Text4Wellness program will work with faith-based organizations in three vulnerable communities to offer health and wellness messaging that church leadership can use to connect with their congregations and share healthier lifestyle tips," said Silas Buchanan, the IEHE's CEO, in a press release. "This grassroots approach uses existing technology to reach people when they are most receptive to change within their communities to help make a positive health impact."