Health Populi

Monday, March 23, 2009

mHealth - the phone as health app platform


As the Internet disrupted health care information in the late 1990s through the 2000s, watch out for the phone to make the health world flat, taking off from Tom Friedman's phrasing about The World.

There are parts of the world using simple SMS text messaging in public health: to enable peoples' positive health behaviors. In parts of Africa, safe-sex messaging and medication reminders help people prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. In Europe, Nokia has tested a wide range of these applications, and Vodafone has been successful in getting teenage diabetics to respond to text messages via phones in an NHS pilot program.

Now, we're seeing the proliferation of iPhone and other mobile applications in health. They seem to be multiplying like rabbits, the way fax machines began to appear all over hospitals as "networking" technology in the 1980s.

See the column, Meet Nurse iPhone, in PC Magazine dated March 23, 2009. It will introduce you to many of the latest med apps for iPhones. One important new link-up is Johnson & Johnson which can link a blood glucose testing device, such as J&J's OneTouch system, to an iPhone.

Health Populi's Hot Points: The beauty of these applications and the phone platform is that they are adoptable across the socioeconomic spectrum. Mobile phones are everywhere, and simple text messaging can deliver powerful and motivating health messages. You certainly do not need an expensive iPhone or other brand to effectively engage in mHealth. Stay tuned to Health Populi and THINK-Health for more on mobile health applications this spring.

posted by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn at 8:39 AM

2 Comments:

  • The explosion of phones for health apps in the last 6-12 months has been amazing and I am guessing we are only at the tip of the iceberg. You have alluded previously that the US domestic market is behind the rest of the world and I am wondering when there will be some international-domestic collaboration. The great thing about this area is that there are hundreds of experiments going on globally which allows for a lot of failure and hopefully figuring out what works and what doesn't. What I don't see happening as much is attention being paid to testing and evaluating any of these phone "trials".

    By Blogger http://thdblog.wordpress.com, At March 23, 2009 11:08 PM  

  • Thank you S Kahn for your educating comments about utility of mobile telephony. I would certainly be glad to have additional materials and discussions since I am designing a research iknowledge and Learning Strategy for a regional organisations for east and Central Africa and see a real potential for Mobile telephony

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At May 13, 2009 6:24 AM  

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