Applying mHealth

I saw a presentation by a colleague over 20 years ago that included these comments, “Imagine an array of strategies and tools that facilitate the active and systematic engagement of populations in defining and dealing equitably and intersectorally with their real issues and concerns. Imagine also collaborating in real-time with partners anywhere, sharing data and ideas, being able to monitor the thoughts of others in real time, and documenting the processes and content that contribute to our goals. Imagine if we could actually apply the technology capacity we already have available to us.” As a public health practitioner, researcher and teacher, the breadth of this capacity intrigued me.

Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil, a pioneer in artificial intelligence said, “Now imagine that the computational power of your cell phone is a million times cheaper, and a thousand time more powerful, and about a hundred thousand times smaller than the main computer at MIT in 1965. What was housed in a building in 1965 now fits in your pocket. What fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years.” (NPR, Ray Kurzweil, April 3, 2009)

In this entry I’d like to share some of my thinking and items I have been reading about mHealth. The term mHealth refers to the application of mobile technologies such as cell phones to address health problems. Since the 1970s I have been a vocal advocate for the application of advanced communication technologies to the training of public health professionals and to public health interventions designed to address appropriate public health needs. We are in a very unusual position today as a result of the widespread availability of mobile devices, principally smart phones, around the globe. For those unfamiliar with the term mHealth, there is some reasonable background found on Wikipedia, and I recommend a quick review of the material there as a start. This short video on mHealth may be an even better introduction.

Besides the extensive deployment of smart phones and related technologies, there are a few other elements that make this situation particularly opportunistic: 1) Over the last few years there has been an incredible rise in participatory culture around social media; 2) The devices’ incredible power packs an extreme opportunity in a small, portable package; 3) While very sophisticated and powerful, they are easy to use; 4) The programmatic cost for the technology is relatively inexpensive; 5) Their location awareness adds capacity not found in most desktop and laptop computers; and 6) There’s ample evidence that irrespective of culture, age, gender or geography, people are willing and able to use these technologies.

The mHealth Alliance, a partnership hosted by the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation that supports research and advocates for broader use of mobile-based or mobile-enhanced solutions to complex maternal and child health issues around the globe, has driven a major effort around mHealth.

Over time I will provide more entries to this blog about the use of mobile technologies for health, but I’d like to recommend two readings before I finish this entry. The first is a United Nations Foundation Report titled mHealth for Development. This report was released near the end of 2009, and it is a detailed overview of the potential for mobile health technologies for promoting health and preventing disease globally with primary attention to maternal and child health issues. The focus of the report is on the developing world, but it is relatively easy to see how the concepts underlying the application of such technologies can be applied anywhere, including in middle and upper income countries.

Brian Dolan

The last piece I’d like to add is based on a presentation made on March 16, 2011 at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Four panelists outlined what they called “landmines” in the way current developers and professionals use mobile health technologies. Brian Dolan, editor of MobileHealthNews, did an excellent job of summarizing and critiquing what John DeSouza, president and CEO of MedHelp; BJ Fogg, head of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab; Margie Morris, clinical psychologist and senior researcher at Intel Labs; and Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, a health economist at Health 2.0 Advisors, presented at the meeting. You can find Dolan’s summary in the March 16, 2011 edition of mobihealthnews. I suggest that you consider that these “landmines” are not limited to just mhealth interventions but could also be applied to public health interventions in general.

I want to close by referencing a meeting that anyone interested in these issues should consider attending. The mHealthSummit will take place from December 5 to 7, 2011 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, Washington, DC. Many people in public health may have missed the 2010 mHealthSummit because it overlapped with the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. This year the organizers have changed the date to allow public health practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to attend. I highly recommended this meeting.