Learnings from mHealth Summit ... Chillmark Research

[CC...Conrad Clyburn (Clymer Grp)]

Colleagues,

See excerpts from the consistently useful Chillmark Research blog post from John Moore ...

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... Over the last two days, been attending the Foundation for the NIH’s event, the mHealth Summit....

Key Take-Aways:

... mHealth is clearly a top priority of the Obama Administration. Rare that an inaugural event would attract HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as keynote speaker ... Brian Dolan of mobihealthnews.com did a nice write-up on the Secretary’s keynote.

... mHealth initiatives in developing countries do not have a sustainable business model, all are grant funded. Big problem here as the researchers are not structuring their research to collect the data needed to justify the investment(s) and subsequently define sustainable business models for the mHealth technology they have deployed....

... African countries want a platform that allows them to build mHealth apps that address the priorities they chose in a manner that reflects their culture. Consultants and pre-packaged, shrink-wrap solutions need not apply. (Note: OpenMRS appears to be gaining wide popularity in developing countries.)

... Most mHealth efforts/research & roll-out, at least expressed at this event, are very narrowly focused on one disease state. Research has borne out time and again that the vast majority of those with a chronic condition and many with an episodic condition suffer from some other co-morbidity...

... There are some really outstanding results in the use of mHealth. One of many examples presented: A public health texting service in South Africa addressing AIDs and TB awareness, encouraging those at risk to call public health clinic, resulted in call volume increase of over 300% to public health clinics that has not subsided.

... Iterative user interface design is critical. Those deploying mHealth solutions in the field have found that designing the user interface (UI) is not trivial by any means (is it ever?) requiring an iterative process as one is dealing with very small real-estate inherent in mobile devices....

... Mobile tech may well be the silver bullet to address healthcare disparities. ... mHealth apps may provide a balance as both African-American and Hispanic communities in the US are far more heavier users of mobile tech than Caucasians.

... This was a good event ... Hopefully next year’s event (November 9-10) will more effectively address new technologies and modalities that will support mHealth initiatives ... expand to include discussions on real outcomes, sustainable business models and consumer-facing mHealth apps with real consumers talking about their personal experiences...

... There is tremendous promise in mHealth apps but this market is still extremely young, nascent and immature. A lot of experimentation occurring today but in a 2-4 years this experimentation will convert into vibrant business models. Mobile apps will be the future of much of health, wellness, and care. Any company/software vendor worth their salt in the healthcare space better damn well have a mobile strategy on their white board or they may well become irrelevant...

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To read the entire blog see: http://chilmarkresearch.com/2009/10/30/learnings-from-mhealth-summit/

Links to multimedia MedTech-IQ mHealth resources: http://medtechiq.ning.com/main/search/search?q=mhealth

ENJOY!

CC