Exploring the Intersection of Technology with Health: mHealth

Exploring the Intersection of Technology with Health: mHealth

The powerful combination of wireless technologies and use of mobile has revamped the face of health service delivery across the globe.

This revolution can be attributed to a powerful combination of factors – the continued growth in the numbers of mobile phone usage across the globe, rapid advances in mobile technologies and mobile applications and a drastic rise in new opportunities for the integration of mobile health into healthcare services.

What is mobile health?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mHealth or mobile health is a term used to describe the practice of using mobile technologies – mobile phones, text messaging services or applications – to support public health and medicine. The ease of access and mobility provided by the use of mobile technology offers immense opportunities for the healthcare industry to address one of the most pressing global challenges: making healthcare more accessible, faster, better and cheaper.

The ACA has put patients at the center of healthcare services. The concept of patient-centric healthcare, “care anywhere” is evolving and now the patient’s well-being along with high-quality healthcare services have become the defining factors for treatment and operational policies. Patient-centric healthcare is largely dependent on advanced digital technologies. The Americans are “always on” the Internet, whether on laptops, smartphones or tablets. Digital, therefore, connects patients, healthcare providers and payers with access to the tools that can help rationalize a healthcare system that is based on the patient-centric approach. Easily accessible, scientifically correct and accurate information empowers patients to become better-educated about their diseases/conditions, learn about the correct ways to improve their overall health, find the best practitioners and factor costs into their decision-making. Healthcare providers can have access into the patient-mind-sets through various digital technologies, Internet and social media platforms. This can help them make informed decisions that are tailored to patient needs.

The mHealth universe

Mobile technologies include the following:

Mobile websites

With the proliferation of mobile devices with advanced web-browsing capability, users now seek an optimized experience on their devices. It’s quite obvious that users won’t return to a website if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile devices.

A mobile website is one that has been optimized for mobile viewing. Mobile-friendly healthcare business websites promise high-level service efficiency to customers in the mobile segment.

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