mHealth for All
Monday, January 18, 2010
| Rob Havasy
About the Author: Rob Havasy is a business analyst at the Center for Connected Health.
As we begin 2010, the signs of a mobile health (mHealth) revolution are all around us. New smartphones, netbooks, tablets, and services reach the market every day. The promise of giving every individual a constant high-speed connection to friends, colleagues, and to the wealth of information available across the planet has entrepreneurs salivating at the possibilities.
The Center for Connected Health believes in the power of mobile technology to transform the lives of patients and to improve the quality of care that we provide. We are currently exploring several areas of mHealth, from smartphone applications to wireless data transfer systems that can give patients a closer relationship with their providers, without increasing the burden on primary care staff.
That I work to integrate such cutting-edge mobile communications into healthcare and people’s lives, while sitting barely 250 yards from the very spot where Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call is a contrast not lost on me. Walking past the plaque erected to honor that event twice each day helps me remember people’s true desire for communication: To use whichever technology enables the most efficient way to convey the information they need to convey. For a large population of our patients, that technology is still Mr. Bell’s telephone, even if only to initiate a face-to-face conversation with their healthcare provider. A recent survey conducted by the Center for Connected Health confirms that people looking for a “connected device” most want it to facilitate better dialog with their providers. (Pena, Watson, Kvedar, & Grant, 2009)
Those of us driving this revolution must ensure that the mHealth ball doesn’t quickly roll beyond reach of the people who can most benefit from its help. For, although I may enjoy writing much of this article on my tiny MacBook while tethered via Bluetooth to my 3G cell phone, diabetic patients with whom I interact every day would rather forego uploading their blood sugar readings to a shared website than learn how to use a new computer or a smartphone.
Susannah Fox, Associate Director of the Pew Foundation’s Internet and American Life Project wrote on the e-Patients.net blog in late December:
No matter which way we slice the population, though, I can tell you that internet access is
still low among people challenged by health problems. Not much has changed in two years.
(Fox, 2009)
In the actual survey summary, she goes on to say:
… just 16% of U.S. adults age 65 and older go online wirelessly, via a laptop or handheld
device. By contrast, 55% of all adults connect to the internet wirelessly. (Fox, Four in Ten
Seniors go Online, 2010)
This is where I believe the state of the mHealth market is right now. Devices are available and services are coming. But the technology isn’t yet simple enough to truly impact the majority of people’s lives. Smartphones and apps and the accompanying buzz have created awareness among the public, but cannot yet deliver lasting effect. Pinch Media recently analyzed 30,000,000 iPhone app downloads in which their technology is embedded and determined that only 1% of users downloading an app become long-term users, and a stunning 98% of downloaded apps are never opened again 30 days after download. (Yardley, 2009) (And for all the iPhone buzz, iPhone users remain less than 3% of the total 276.6 million US cellular subscribers.) This is a clear call to action: we can do better, for all segments of the healthcare population.
Now we must craft mobile components into solutions, which are meaningful and available to all of our patients. The true potential for mobile will be realized not by ever more complex iPhone apps, but rather by embedded data connections creating a new class of purpose-built, always connected devices, which reduce the complexity presented to the user. Think of the Amazon Kindle as the new paradigm for this type of device. Kindle users needn’t know that their book purchases are enabled by the Sprint EVDO data network – they needn’t even know that Sprint is involved. They simply turn on their Kindle, key the serial number into a web page (or have someone do it for them), and then download books anywhere and anytime with a touch of a few buttons. When physiologic data and provider coaching flows just as simply, even for patients whose primary means of communication is a traditional telephone, the true promise of mHealth will be realized.
Works Cited:
CTIA. (2009). Wireless Quick Facts. Retrieved December 30, 2009 from CTIA, The Wireless Association: http://www.ctia.org/media/industry_info/index.cfm/AID/10323
Fox, S. (2009, December 22). Access is (almost) everything. Retrieved December 27, 2009 from e-Patients.net: http://e-patients.net/archives/2009/12/access-is-almost-everything.html
Fox, S. (2010, January 13). Four in Ten Seniors go Online. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project: http://www.pewinternet.org/Commentary/2010/January/38-of-adults-age-65-go-online.aspx
Pena, V., Watson, A. J., Kvedar, J. C., & Grant, R. W. (2009). Mobile Phone Technology for Children with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes: A Parent Survey. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technoogy , 3 (6), 1481-1489.
Yardley, G. (2009, February 18). AppStore Secrets. Retrieved December 29, 2009 from Pinch Media Blog: http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/