Does the mHealth movement have an image problem?

The atrium at the Gaylord Resort in Washington D.C. was brimming with Christmas spirit last week, and teeming with families looking to attend the nearby ice show or meet up with Santa and, for some reason, Shrek. They mingled freely with the thousands of healthcare executives attending the Annual mHealth Summit at the conference center next door.

The disparity of the two crowds highlights one of the lingering barriers that mHealth faces in this country. For while the summit attracted its fair share of health system and health plan executives, vendors, scholars and entrepreneurs, it didn’t seem to feature many primary care physicians, nor did it concern the general public.

Those two parties may have the most impact in pushing mHealth beyond the perception that it’s a luxury the American healthcare system can barely afford.

To be sure, doctors and their patients are driving the mHealth bandwagon, demanding mobile tools and methods and prompting health systems to play catch-up. A recent HIMSS survey, for example, points out that most physicians are embracing mHealth, but their bosses aren't reacting fast enough to put policies in place to govern the use of mobile devices in the healthcare setting.

With every instance of a Hollywood star’s medical records being made public or a laptop left on a subway, the healthcare industry has reacted with promises to improve security. And while both the FCC and FDA are wading into the murky waters of mobile device regulation, neither has come out with any tried-and-true set of rules yet. What happens, then, when a doctor makes an incorrect diagnosis based on information viewed on a smartphone or iPad?

Perhaps the average American views mHealth as a tool for wellness and preventive medicine, since the majority of apps at this time seem focused on improving one's lifestyle by making healthy choices. As such, at a time when the public’s attention seems focused on the cost of healthcare and on reducing waste, health and wellness tools are pushed to the back burner.

A couple of speakers at the mHealth Summit may have touched on the root cause. Sangita Reddy, executive director of operations for India’s Apollo Hospitals Group, and Krishnan Ganapathy, of the Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation, both pointed out in separate sessions that the key to the adoption of mHealth lies in convincing the primary care physician that this is a means of improving clinical outcomes, and not just some fancy tool that will take away business.

As a result, mHealth projects in places like India, Africa, Asia and South America are focusing on the use of smartphones and mobile devices to impact clinical decision-making. In developing and Third World countries, they’re being used to reach populations that aren’t getting proper healthcare – as tools to deliver healthcare. They’re focused on saving lives, not just improving them.

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of mHealth projects in the United States that are looking to improve clinical outcomes – just that they seem lost in the crush of apps and jargon. And while Ganapathy points out that there are more pilots in mHealth than in the American and Indian air forces, his point is that we need results that can be used to make the argument that mHealth is, ahem, meaningful.

Eric Wicklund

Editor of mHIMSS.org

Follow Eric on Twitter @eriwick