Interesting times for mobile health IT technology

David Metcalf

We live in exciting and interesting times when it comes to mHealth. Many aspects of the technology, policy, use cases and outcomes – including cost savings – are undergoing rapid enhancement.

One of the most compelling themes that was recurring across multiple office and case studies in our book, mHealth: From Smartphones to Smart Systems, published by HIMSS, was the idea of an mHealth ecosystem and the development of common architectures around the technologies of enterprise-level systems. These systems, like EHRs and LIS, can be made accessible through mobile technology and by integrating a full suite of real-time sensors and data streams from peripherals such as smart pens for dictation and transcription, wireless-enabled blood pulse oximeters and glucose meters, security peripherals like automated identity badges, and real-time over-the-air EEG and EKG.

These are just a few examples. One project underway by the Army, called Mobile Care, takes this a step further and integrates mobile access to electronic health records with telepresence, dictation and a library of medical informatics describing complex procedures within the context of the medical record that a physician is reviewing. In conjunction with the University of Miami, this will be a boon for medical education as well as clinical practice.

We look forward to hearing more about your examples of how an ecosystem approach to mHealth is changing your healthcare systems and the practice of medicine. Outcomes are key, and we look forward to hearing more about your adventures during these exciting times at the 2012 mHealth Summit, scheduled to take place Dec. 3-5 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center just outside of Washington, D.C.

David Metcalf, PhD, is a research faculty member with the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training and head of the Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab, which he founded in 2006. He is the co-editor, with Rick Krohn, MA, MAS, of the 2012 HIMSS publication mHealth: From Smartphones to Smart Systems.