Mobile Health Can Make a Difference in Meeting the Needs of Patients

Mobile health – particularly when combined with other smart technologies including the cloud, social networking, big data and mobility –has the potential to transform healthcare through reduced costs, extended access to care, changed behaviors and improved outcomes.

This was a reoccurring theme at yesterday’s Financial Times/US Healthcare and Life Sciences conference where Mike Ross, area vice president of healthcare for Verizon, participated on the panel “Healthcare Everywhere: Embracing the Mobile Health Opportunity.” Alongside Ross was the day’s keynote speaker, Freda C. Lewis-Hall M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer, Pfizer as well as Tom Gentile, president and chief executive officer, healthcare systems, GE Healthcare; Kerry McDermott, senior director, healthcare technology policy, West Health; and Harry Greenspun M.D., senior advisor for health care transformation and technology, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

According to Ross, “Changing clinician workflows (to use more technology) and shifting the care model so that patients take more responsibility for their health are two major shifts that need to occur in order to foster growth and adoption in mobile health.”

For example, the panel addressed issues such as interoperability, consumer and clinician technology learning curves, regulatory incentives to drive electronic health record adoption and the proliferation of smartphones by consumers as drivers of growth for mobile health.

A new study, commissioned by Mobiquity*, indicates we are making progress in this direction. The report found that 70 percent of consumers use mobile apps daily to track physical activity and calorie intake but only 40 percent share this information with their physician.

*The study, commissioned by Mobiquity and undertaken by the independent research firm Research Now, was conducted between March 5 and 11 and focused on 1,000 consumers who use or plan to use health and fitness mobile apps.

From left to right: Tom Gentile, president and chief executive officer, healthcare systems, GE Healthcare; Kerry McDermott, senior director, healthcare technology policy, West Health; Mike Ross, area vice president healthcare, Verizon Enterprise Solutions; Freda C. Lewis-Hall M.D., executive vice president, chief medical officer, Pfizer; and Harry Greenspun M.D., senior advisor for health care transformation and technology, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.