Festivus

Well, it’s that time of year again. Break out the aluminum pole and prepare for the Feats of Strength. Festivus is drawing near, and I’m ready for the Airing of Grievances related to mobile health.

Carrier signals
As ubiquitous as mobile health apps now seem to be, if there’s no signal or a weak one, we really can’t use them. Traveling through west Texas this summer, I stopped in a town big enough to support multiple fast food options but no cell data speeds faster than an EDGE network. I started downloading my e-mail, and by the time I finished lunch, some of it had come through. Even here in New York, Verizon signals get through in some buildings but not AT&T. On the flip side, AT&T lets me talk and use data simultaneously on my iPhone, but not other carriers. And I’m still waiting for movie theaters to just block all signals. Not too many people talk anymore, but the light from screens in use during a film is still quite distracting, no matter how many clever warnings there are prior to the start of the movie. Besides, do you REALLY want to log that buttered popcorn into your diet tracking app?

Apps that don’t work
OK, maybe you might expect it from free apps – after all, you get what you pay for. But for paid apps, there are still plenty that lock up or just don’t work as advertised. It’s called quality control. Look it up.

Lack of multi-function apps
Lots of apps do unique things, with discrete functions – but not many pull them all together. There are, though, some promising ones on the very near horizon. See my previous rant – I mean blog entry about this.

Lack of integration
How many chargers do you travel with? Even if you’re a pure Apple mobile user, you may now have to use separate cables or adapters to support the traditional 30-pin connector and the newer, smaller Lightning connecter. We have managed to standardize on batteries – full-size flashlights take D cells, smoke detectors take 9V batteries, and all toys for which batteries are not included all seem to be the only things on Earth that take C cells. Why can’t we get our act together on AC adapters?

The same goes for notifications and messaging. Forgetting about mobile health for a moment, I know some people who send e-mails, some who send SMS texts, some who send text messages on What’s App, some who send messages on Facebook, and the latest – some who send me chat messages on Words With Friends. Add in notifications from mobile health apps, and it could easily make you think you have ADHD.

Then there is integration between mobile health apps and other health IT solutions. Speaking at the recent 2012 mHealth Summit, Peter Tippett – chief medical officer and vice president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said that the privacy and security framework in place has to be made as seamless as possible, so that someone could conceivably push a button and immediately get healthcare. "We need to get stronger identity (management), but we need to make it invisible.”

Not everyone has a fancy-schmancy mobile device
If you work in the technology field, travel a lot or go to conferences, it's easy to think that everyone and their mother has a smartphone, tablet or both. The fact of the matter is that the people with the highest incidence of conditions that could benefit from patient engagement through a mobile health app don’t necessarily have a device with more functionality than a cell phone. And many still live in areas not served by high-speed cell data networks (see "carrier signals" above). In a previous post, I discussed the fact that some of the most effective programs use simple bi-directional text messaging. It’s great to see the incredible innovation that the mobile health industry has spawned, but let’s not forget that keeping it simple will also yield significant benefits.

MS-Office autocorrect
This is not a mobile health grievance, but in the spirit of Festivus, I want to get it out of my system. To the folks at Microsoft: You claim to be big in healthcare. So when are you going to get rid of the default autocorrect spelling setting that changes EHR to HER?

Whether you celebrate Festivus or any of the other holidays of the season, I hope they are happy and healthy ones for you and your loved ones. See you in 2013.

The views expressed in this blog are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer.