Consumers & Mobile Health IT

Mobile health IT has the capacity to provide consumers with the right data, at the right time, and the right place to remain healthy – or return to health. Today’s consumers use mobile technologies (like smart phones) to communicate, monitor, manage and improve their own health. By engaging consumers, mHealth provides a new platform managing health, chronic, and acute conditions.

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NoMoreClipboard, iMPak Health unveil Health Journals at HIMSS12 February 22, 2012 | Eric Wicklund The journals are designed to collect PHR information and provide a direct portal to clinicians and caregivers – all in a wireless package that's easy to use and unobtrusive  More
 
ONC wants more resources to conduct PHI privacy campaign February 22, 2012 | Diana Manos The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is seeking more information on the risk associated with accessing personal health information through mobile devices.  More
 
Qualcomm shows off Qualcomm Life, 2net hub at HIMSS12 February 21, 2012 | Eric Wicklund Unveiled at last year's mHealth Summit, the San Diego-based telecommunications company's healthcare division now has partnerships in place with more than 50 mHealth vendors and providers.  More
GetWellNetwork unveils iPad capabilities for IPC solution February 17, 2012 | Eric Wicklund The developer of the popular interactive patient care solution is moving away from the hospital-based computer and laptop and giving patients and caregivers the opportunity to access information and communicate while on the move or outside the hospital room.  More
Philips Healthcare to offer a peek at its Personal Health Book project at HIMSS12 February 17, 2012 | Eric Wicklund Philips is getting ready to beta test its new post-hospital portal for patients, providers and caregivers, and will show off the PHR-like service next week in Las Vegas. The company has also announced a deal with eHealth Global Technologies to help cancer patients gather their records online.  More
ONC launches app challenge to aid people with disabilities February 14, 2012 | Bernie Monegain Federal officials say mobile tools can be used to help those with disabilities gain access to their medical records as well as other health and wellness resources.  More
The numbers add up for Teladoc, Rent-A-Center February 14, 2012 | Eric Wicklund In its first year of contracting for telehealth services for all employees, the national retail chain sees savings of more than $700,000 in reduced healthcare expenses and improved productivity – and at least one life saved.  More
University challenge targets NCDs with mHealth and social media February 10, 2012 | Mike Miliard A global competition sponsored by IBM and Novartis has yielded social media and mobile technology tools that could help tackle non-communicable diseases such as asthma, diabetes, stroke and cancer.  More
Qualcomm announces investment in AirStrip Technologies February 9, 2012 | Eric Wicklund The telecommunications giant, which launched its Qualcomm Life subsidiary at last year's mHealth Summit, is throwing its support behind AirStrip, which creates the technology platform to link physicians via mobile devices to patient data collected in EMRs, at the bedside and through home-based monitoring devices.  More
Boston conference to explore mobile tech's influence on behavior change, healthy lifestyles February 6, 2012 | Eric Wicklund The second annual Healthcare Experience Design Conference, scheduled for March 25-27 in Boston, will bring together a host of healthcare entrepreneurs to discuss how people can be motivated to improve their health and well-being.  More
Massachusetts study shows benefits of virtual coaching February 1, 2012 | Eric Wicklund A step-count study involving 70 overweight people indicates those who used an online coach maintained their level of commitment, while those without access to a virtual coach saw their participation wane.  More
Aetna's anti-smoking pilot program combines dentists, iPads January 27, 2012 | Eric Wicklund The Hartford-based insurer and Columbia University are partnering on a program that would give dentists specially designed iPads to teach patients the dangers of smoking.  More
Pharma looks to mobile strategies to effectively reach prescribers February 17, 2012 | Sanjay Pingle It is well documented that the pharma industry is facing many challenges in 2012. Drug makers are losing exclusive patents on drugs that have matured, causing unexpected losses of revenue in the billions of dollars. As a result, companies are cutting costs and significantly reducing their sales force – which in turn creates the new challenge of reaching practices and hospitals with fewer face-to-face office visits.  More
The perils of mobile health February 10, 2012 | Matthew Grob, CPHIMS, FHIMSS I promised readers a follow-up to my last entry, “Look Ma, No Wires” but I thought that with the upcoming HIMSS annual conference and the number of people in one place who will be relying on mobile devices while away from the office, it was a good opportunity to make people aware of the perils of using these devices.  More
Five reasons why patients with implantable defibrillators deserve their data January 26, 2012 | David Lee Scher, MD The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law on Feb. 17, 2009.  More
Look, Ma - no wires! January 26, 2012 | Matthew Grob, CPHIMS, FHIMSS I started thinking about what will happen when my kids look back at videos shot when they were young. What about those images will look old-fashioned to them? And I realized that they would ask me one simple question – “What’s with all the wires?”  More
WeSprout gives parents a PHR platform for their children January 24, 2012 | Eric Wicklund One of the nagging problems with the adoption of personal health records is the reluctance of the average healthcare consumer to take on the task of launching and maintaining that record.  More
Reducing the rural patient's burden by expanding access with telehealth January 19, 2012 | Andrew R. Watson, MD Over the past several years, as debate about the future of healthcare has raged, “quality, cost, access” has become the mantra for thought leaders seeking strategies to render our system sustainable.  More
Healthcare has room for many more dreams January 16, 2012 | Edna Boone, MA, CPHIMS Having spent more than 25 years in healthcare, I was compelled to reflect on my experience working in various settings, the health needs of the most vulnerable and the message Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shared with us almost 50 years ago.  More
Getting 'Siri-ious' about healthcare January 12, 2012 | Matthew Grob, CPHIMS, FHIMSS With increasing focus on the patient’s role in accountable care, particularly around management of chronic conditions, I decided to see how Siri could help a healthcare consumer in that regard.  More
Georgia's 'Strong4Life' campaign is harsh, but necessary - now it's time to get mHealth involved January 4, 2012 | Eric Wicklund The campaign, backed by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, uses overweight children to urge Georgians to "stop sugar-coating the problem" and tackle the growing epidemic of juvenile obesity head-on.  More
Everything old is new again: Telehealth brings care delivery back to the patient December 22, 2011 | Andrew R. Watson, MD Our industry has been deeply engaged in spirited debate, dialogue and discussion these past several years – most of it centered on the future of healthcare.  More
Does the mHealth movement have an image problem? December 12, 2011 | Eric Wicklund 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 3rd Annual mHealth Summit at the conference center next door.  More
Consumers will drive mHealth adoption December 1, 2011 | Sanjay Pingle By 2014, mobile Web traffic will have exceeded desktop traffic for the first time. This has truly profound implications, especially for anyone who delivers services or runs a business on the Internet.  More
Enabling Collaborative Healthcare Delivery: Care Coordination Strategies with 21st Century Technology December 15, 2011 | mHIMSS This paper, based on a roundtable session featuring John Mattison of Kaiser Permanente, identifies the building blocks of care coordination and the innovative technologies being deployed to support continuity of care by visionary health systems and the healthcare IT vendor community.  More
Where Information and Care Meet: Secure Mobile Healthcare Solutions that Drive Care Coordination December 15, 2011 | mHIMSS This paper, based on a roundtable session featuring Liz Johnson of Tenet Healthcare Corp., examines how leading hospitals and health systems in the country are implementing mobile point of care, sharing best practices and lessons learned, to deliver real-time, high-quality care anywhere.  More
U.S. Healthcare and Mobile Technology December 1, 2011 | mHIMSS Mobile technology has not only mobilized people and data, but it has also simplified business. In general, mobile solutions are preferred for large field sales and large working staffs to enhance productivity on the road and allow for better cost returns. Mobile solutions for the healthcare industry not only focus on operational efficiency, but also prioritize critical information access and health and wellness management. Mobility in healthcare will bring efficiency not only with sheer focus on lower costs but to provide improved services at the point of care.  More
Healthcare Information at Risk: The Consumerization of Mobile Devices November 22, 2011 | mHIMSS The consumerization of mobile devices, also known as bring your own device, (BYOD) is a major trent affecting healthcare. This invobvles healthcare workers using personal mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, to access applications that enable them to deliver care whenever and wherever it is needed.  More
Improving the Health of Hispanics Using Mobile Technology November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS Nearly 50% of Hispanics own a smartphone (compared to 27% for non-Hispanic whites) and a higher percentage of Hispanics (25%) have used their mobile phone to search for health information than non-Hispanics (15%). Hispanics are more trusting of mobile-delivered messages and more receptive to receiving text reminders and health related messages than non-Hispanics. In short, the opportunity for deploying mHealth with Hispanics is immediate and significant.  More
IS MOBILE THE PRESCRIPTION FOR SUSTAINED BEHAVIOR CHANGE? November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS Mobile phones offer unprecedented potential as a medium through which behavior change can be supported.  More
National Broadband Plan: Ch. 10 on Healthcare November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS Broadband is not a panacea. However, there is a developing set of broadband-enabled solutions that can play an important role in the transformation required to address these issues. These solutions, usually grouped under the name health information technology (IT), offer the potential to improve health care outcomes while simultaneously controlling costs and extending the reach of the limited pool of health care professionals.  More
Medical Home 2.0: The Present, the Future November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a way of organizing primary care so that patients receive care that is coordinated by a primary care physician (PCP), supported by information technologies for self-care management, delivered by a multi-disciplinary team of allied health professionals and adherent to evidence-based practice guidelines. The goal of the PCMH is to deliver continuous, accessible, high-quality, patient-oriented primary care.  More
In The World: Easy on the eyes November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS A simple, low-cost device that affixes to a cell phone could provide quick eye tests throughout the developing world.  More
Integration of Remote Blood Glucose Meter Upload Technology into a Clinical Pharmacist Medication Therapy Management Service November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS Pharmacists are becoming increasingly more active in helping to manage patients’ complex medication regimens in an effort to help detect and avoid medication-related problems. Working together with patients and their physicians as part of an interdisciplinary health care team, pharmacists are helping to improve medication outcomes.  More
The Telehealth Solution November 16, 2011 | mHIMSS It is important to understand that the success of a Telehealth service depends primarily on the effectiveness of its clinical component. While there are a number of Telehealth monitors available, some better than others, they serve principally as devices for data transmission.  More
Six Lessons Learned as Hospitals Journey to Smartphone Utopia November 16, 2011 | mHIMSS There is a communications revolution occurring in hospitals today. With highly mobile staff members and the increasing use of smartphones, new ways to share and act on information abound. Yet despite these technology changes, the need for fast, accurate messaging remains crucial to maintain patient safety at all times.  More
Txt4Health: Using Mobile Health Technology in the New Orleans Beacon Community February 15, 2012 | Anjum Khurshid PhD, MBBS (MD), MPAff The New Orleans Beacon Community is currently using Txt4Health approaches to reduce healthcare costs, improve population health, and enhance patient experiences when engaging in healthy practices. This program assists individuals with diabetes through SMS texting to educate and improve patients dealing with chronic disease.  More
Health IT Enables DIY Health Care: The convergence of Consumers and Health IT January 27, 2012 | mHIMSS Presented by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, MA, MHSA of THINK-Health. This presentation provides an in depth discussion of consumer engagement with HIT including the use of mobile technologies to manage their own health and healthcare.  More
Video Presentations from The 2011 mHealth Summit, December 5 - 7 2011 January 18, 2012 | mHIMSS This webpage hosts all of the video presentations from the The 2011 mHealth Summit, December 5 - 7 2011.  More
Leveraging Unified Communications to Improve Clinical Workflow November 15, 2011 | mHIMSS Unified communications(UC) is the integration of real‐time communication services such asinstant messaging(chat),presence information,IP telephony,video conferencing,call controlandspeech recognitionwith non real‐time communication services such asunified messaging(integratedvoicemail,e‐mail,SMSandfax). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.  More
Definitions of mHealth January 5, 2012 | mHIMSS A collection of mHealth definitions from key healthcare organizations.  More
A New Prescription for Chronic Disease: Remote Monitoring Devices February 20, 2012 | mHIMSS This original HIMSS Analytics research seeks to understand the consumer perspective with regards to home health monitoring use. The report includes information on consumer readiness, barriers and benefits of home monitoring adoption.  More
Glossary of Terms February 6, 2012 | mHIMSS   More
mHealth: FROM SMART PHONES TO SMART SYSTEMS January 31, 2012 | mHIMSS Click on the book cover to preview a chapter from the new book mHealth: FROM SMART PHONES TO SMART SYSTEMS  More
5 FAQ's on SMS (Short Message Service) Text Messaging Implementation in Healthcare January 11, 2012 | mHIMSS This FAQ address common questions when implementing SMS (text) messaging within a clinical environment. The FAQ addresses important information related to privacy and security, implementation, and post implementation support related to texting.  More
QuitNowTXT December 2, 2011 | mHIMSS The QuitNowTXT text messaging program is designed as a resource which can be adapted to specific contexts including those outside the United States and in languages other than English. Based on evidence-based practices, this program is a smoking cessation intervention for smokers who are ready to quit smoking.  More
Smokefree Teen: teen.smokefree.gov December 2, 2011 | mHIMSS The Tobacco Control Research Branch, (TCRB) is currently developing a teen smoking cessation site. Given teens’ unique usage patterns of emerging technologies, text messaging, mobile device optimization, and downloadable mobile applications will be integral for a teen site. Indeed, the use of text messaging to deliver cessation treatment is seen as a core feature of the teen site.  More
Text4baby November 29, 2011 | mHIMSS To help more pregnant women and new moms get information about caring for their health and giving their babies the best possible start in life, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) launched text4baby, the first free health text messaging service in the U.S.Text4baby supports moms by providing accurate, text-length health information and resources in a format that is personal and timely, using a channel she knows and uses.  More
Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators App Challenge November 23, 2011 | mHIMSS The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT are challenging teams of developers and health professionals to co-design an application that will be used to help solve one or more of our nation’s high-priority health problems.  More
Mobile Enterprise: Wireless Solutions from the C-Suite to the Field, (mobileenterprise.edgl.com) November 23, 2011 | mHIMSS Wireless and Mobile whitepaper library  More
Small Grant Program - mHealth Tools to Promote Effective Patient–Provider Communication, Adherence to Treatment and Self Management of Chronic Diseases In Underserved Populations November 17, 2011 | mHIMSS The purpose of this initiative issued by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) and the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) is to stimulate research utilizing Mobile Health (mHealth) tools aimed at the improvement of effective patient–provider communication, adherence to treatment and self-management of chronic diseases in underserved populations.  More