mHealth Moving Fast, Raising Hope, And Questions

mHealth Moving Fast, Raising Hope, And Questions 

From the 6 December 2011 blog item by Elsevier Global Medical News

Hopes, ideas, and hundreds of apps, are floating in the hallways during the third annual mHealth [Mobile Health] Summit***, marking the beginnings of a field that is still in its infancy and carries with it more questions than answers.

The federal government is pushing mHealth, launching programs like theHealthy Apps Challenge, which Dr. Regina Benjamin, the U.S. Surgeon General, introduced in her keynote speech. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, introduced the SmokeFreeTXT program, a text messaging service that helps teens quit smoking. Ms. Sebelius has also established theText4Health Task Force last year to look at other uses of texting in promoting healthy behavior.

“As our phones get more powerful, they are becoming our primary tools for doing everything from getting directions to deciding where to eat, Ms. Sebelius said during her keynote speech on Monday.  “And increasingly, that includes using our phones to track, manage, and improve our health.  In the iTunes store alone, there are nearly 12,000 different apps related to health – a number that will probably have gone up by the time I finish speaking.”…

…we sometimes come away from a conference, such as this week’smHealth Summit, with the feeling that the only ones making a living with mHealth are conference organizers. Maybe it was the format…That being said, however, the mHealth Summit, now in its third year, is the best conference one can attend in the US if one wants to get the global pulse on all things mHealth.

That is not to say they are no advances occurring here in the US. One of the keynote speakers, cardiologist Eric Topol, gave several live demos during his talk of the mHealth tools he is already using including stating that he has not used a stethoscope in two years, instead preferring to use mobisante’s ultrasound wand and iPhone App.  Then there was our conversation with WellDoc’s CTO who informed us that they are currently being deployed at a number of institutions and hope to have a host of CPT codes that doctors can bill against in late 2012. And there was the small start-up we spoke with who has done the hard work of first identifying what the value proposition is for all stakeholders in a community (payers, providers and consumers) and then developed an extremely compelling solution (think analytics & automated quality reporting, tied to reimbursement, tied to consumer engagement) that has a lot of promise in a market where physicians’ pay will increasingly be based on outcomes and ability to meet pre-defined quality metrics…

…Addendum:
For a slightly different take, check out the post by VC firm Psilos’ Managing Partner Lisa Suennen’s. Well worth the read.

Read the entire news item with a link to a video interview

Press releases may be found here

mHealth Summit 2011 – Videos Available

• mHealth: Closing the Gap Between Promise and Adoption (iHealthBeat- Reporting Technology’s Impact on Health Care)
• mHealth Summit 2011 – Videos Available (International Medical Association News)
• HIMSS: Most hospitals still developing mobile policies (MobileHealth News)
• Physicians in Scotland use iPhone 4 and Skype to remotely manage lung and pleural ultrasound (iMedical Apps, Dec 2011)
• UK patients able to get health advice via free iPhone medical app, review of NHS Direct app (iMedical Apps, Dec 2011)

Related Resources

• Get Mobilized! An introduction to mobile resources and tools in health sciences libraries (Medical Library Association)

  Archived 2011 online class including “lecture notes”, resources, class discussions, and related slides/videos

• Health Apps (in Health and Medical News and Resources selected by Janice Flahiff)
  a short list of information and tracking apps derived from the above Get Mobilized class

Related articles

• mHealth: Seemingly Stuck in Neutral (chilmarkresearch.com)
• Importance of mHealth for Peacebuilding (/technologyforpeace.wordpress.com/)
• Physicians aren’t taking mobile health seriously (KevinMD.com)”Although I realize that many actively practicing physicians cannot attend all technology meetings, I would consider mHealth Summit to be that one meeting a year that an ambitious physician mobile health entrepreneur would take the time to attend. Therefore, I am assuming that this correlates with a low number of physician entrepreneurs in the marketplace. Although large numbers of physicians are certainly using smartphones, there is still a notable lag in the incorporation of mobile health within the traditional medical practice.

  For example, case examples of physicians recommending health apps to their patients and then measuring changes in medication adherence or health outcomes are not common. Additionally, mobile phone sensors as a dominant outpatient diagnostic tool is also uncommon although cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol mentioned that his mobile phone vscan ultrasonic sensor has now replaced his stethoscope in his outpatient clinic. Exchanges on twitter such as the one listed below may mirror the fact that perhaps physicians aren’t taking mobile health seriously:”

   

• Mobile health and the globalization of medicine (kevinmd.com)
• mHealth Moving Fast, Raising Hope, And Questions (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Mobile health: Hallelujah or bah humbug? (finance.fortune.cnn.com)
• mHealth Summit 2011 – Videos Available (imianews.wordpress.com)
• mHealth Moving Fast, Raising Hope, And Questions (egmnblog.wordpress.com)
• Sensei, Inc. Presenting at mHealth Summit (prweb.com)
• Zeo Sleep Monitor CEO at the 2011 mHealth Summit (medgadget.com)
• Physicians Play Important Role in mHealth Integration (egmnblog.wordpress.com)
• 10 startups from mHealth 2011: Meddik (medcitynews.com)
• Converging Ideas at the 2011 mHealth Summit (rwjfblogs.typepad.com)
• Mobile health: Hallelujah or bah humbug? (finance.fortune.cnn.com)

***”The largest event of its kind, the 3rd annual mHealth Summit brings together leaders in government, the private sector, industry, academia, providers and not-for-profit organizations from across the mHealth ecosystem to advance collaboration in the use of wireless technology to improve health outcomes in the United States and abroad.”