Not too long ago I thought I had the best technology in the
world. Someone could call my number and
this little gadget on my hip would beep.
I could then call them back. As I
look back at those days in nostalgia, I also think that this was also the latest
in "mobile health" technology.
In an emergency a doctor could be reached at any time and respond to the
needs of his or her patients. Now days
if we need to contact our doctor the latest emerging trend is mobile health or
mHealth. Messages, images, prescriptions,
notes and all sorts of medical information are now traded on mobile phones and
tablets. mHealth is posed to change the
way we interact with our providers, view our medical history and try to
"self-diagnose" ourselves. But
this is not all that mHealth is bringing us.
We can also track our weight, create workout programs and monitor how we
eat. Diabetics can have their blood
sugar automatically sent to their doctors, who in turn can create health plans
to keep these people on track.
This all sounds like it is going to make life easier for all of us,
right. Well for certain groups of people
these advancements are far from easy.
These people are the politicians and regulatory groups that must enforce
safe and secure transfer of data. People
selling applications must also sell the products in a harsh economical
environment, and find a way to convince consumers that it is worth paying for
some of these pieces of software. There
are also researchers who must conduct studies to see how these technologies
will fit in an ever-changing social environment. And last but not least, the people that must
build the infrastructure to support this massive flow of information. Lets take a look at some of these
complexities and see how mHealth will move forward.
Politics,
Regulations and Your Mobile Freedom
Ponemon Institute, a research organization that conducts studies on
privacy, data protection and information security policies, found that 94% of
healthcare organizations have had at least one data breach in the past two
years (SIW Editorial Staff, 2012). This
number is scary. The most common types
of breaches include lost equipment, employee errors, third-party error,
criminal attack and technology glitches (SIW Editorial Staff, 2012). Now with the rise of mHealth, there is a new
avenue for private data to be leaked to people who should not have access. Yes we are entering a world of more mobile
access, but this access comes with a price.
This price is the potential for data to be stolen, lost or
mishandled. Eric Wicklund (2012), editor
at mHIMSS, learned from Peter Tippett of Verizon Enterprise Solutions that
"healthcare is 'dead last' among industries in using cloud computing and
IT" and that "part of the reason for that is regulatory
overhang." Technology is advancing
and healthcare is just entering the game.
There are many regulations and laws to be created to make sure data is
safe as it flies over the airways. Also
with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) it is becoming difficult for CIOs to find a
happy medium between company policy and the law (Comstock, 2012).
mHealth Faces
the Economy
The economy may be a barrier to mHealth adoption, especially in
developing nations. Dan Jellinek (2012),
states that one barrier is lack of investment funds because of the worldwide economic
crisis. Another is the misalignment of
funding incentives (Jellinek, 2012). He
advises that governments around the world take these into account when planning
infrastructure and policy (Jellinek, 2012).
How mHealth will
affect the Socio-Economic Climate
There is no doubt that this emerging technology will make an impact
on how healthcare is delivered. Studies
are already being done on how far the impact will be. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned
to study these impacts. These impacts
will be especially felt in emerging economies.
BCG found that mHealth will provide the solutions needed in these
economies and do it quickly (BCG, 2012).
They also found that mHealth will free up health resources by reducing
paperwork, reducing human error, avoid duplication and reduce administrative
burdens by 20 - 30 percent (BCG, 2012).
This will go a long way in countries that face short budgets and start
to save and improve lives all over the globe.
Another example of the socio-economic effect is how mHealth will improve
mother and child health. Voice of
America (2012) (VOA) gives the scenario of a pregnant woman whose mobile device
sends messages timed to her pregnancy that tells her what to do and when to do
certain things. It will even alert her
when to get special treatment, or prevention care (VOA, 2012).
Building a
Foundation
When using the technology to facilitate mHealth, there are a few
challenges that need to be considered when building the infrastructure on which
all platforms will live. One
consideration is the quality of connection and performance of the end device,
according to Jenny Laurello (2011).
There must be a high quality of connections (Laurello, 2011). Unfortunately in most cases connects on
mobile devices are not as consistent as a desktop device (Laurello, 2011). One way around this is to create a wireless
network at the organization that can accommodate the increased load of all the
mobile devices (Laurello, 2011).
As you can see mHealth will make a great impact on healthcare of the
future. There are few barriers such as
lack of oversight and regulation that can lead to data breaches, and key parts
of the infrastructure must be upgraded, especially wireless technology like
Wi-Fi. There is also the lack of
investment in a world recovering from a global economic catastrophe. If these barriers can be over come the
socio-economic affect will be saved and improved lives across the world and
because of this the future of mHealth looks bright.
References:
Boston Consulting Group.
(2012 April). The Socio-Economic
Impact of Mobile Health. Retrieved from http://telenor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/BCG-Telenor-Mobile-Health-Report-May-20121.pdf
Comstock, J. (2012 December
06). BYOD, HIPAA are rock and hard place
for CIOs. mobihealthnews. Retrieved from http://mobihealthnews.com/19385/byod-hipaa-are-rock-and-hard-place-for-cios/
Jellinek, D. (2012). A changing world. Vodafone mHealth Solutions. Downloaded from http://mhealth.vodafone.com/health_debate/insights_guides/politics_economics/index.jsp
Laurello, J. (2011 June
28). Network and infrastructure
considerations for mHealth and mobile devices.
Retrieved from http://www.circadence.com/news/current/Network-and-infrastructure-considerations-for-mHealth-and-mobile-devices
SIW Editorial Staff. (2012
December 10). Study: Healthcare Data
Breaches A Growing Concern.
SECURITYINFOWATCH.COM. Retrieved
from http://www.securityinfowatch.com/news/10840149/study-healthcare-data-breaches-a-growing-concern
Voice of America. (2012
December 05). Using a Mobile Phone to
Improve Mother and Child Health.
Retrieved from http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/wireless-phone-pregnancy-mama-baby-medical-mobile/1559325.html
Wicklung, E. (2012 December
04). Verizon's Tippett says mHealth data
transfer and security must be invisible and seamless. mHIMSS.
Retrieved from http://www.mhimss.org/news/verizons-tippett-says-mhealth-data-transfer-and-security-must-be-invisible-and-seamless
