“One really promising area that we all should be focusing on is the area of mobile health”

Tom Kalil, White House Deputy Director for Policy in the Office of Science and Technology, White House, speaking at the Mobile Future meeting in Washington:

Hattip to Brian Dolan at MobiHealthNews

Another reminder that the only limit in Connected Health is our imagination…

Reading a promising press release about how 3G communication technologies are providing mobility to City of Prague Emergency Medical Service teams to help them save lives, and I’m reminded once again of a key reason why I think lots of people are mistaken into thinking that mHealth will happen in the developing world first. I seriously wonder if the designer of this application had built the system to serve existing patient/carer needs or rather those of the commercial partners (eg. Intel, Panasonic)

Mobilising the administrative duties of frontline medics is not about putting a slimmed down office desk into the boot of their vehicle. Designers need to be able to appreciate the multiple advantages if they could achieve the same with just a smartphone eg. cheaper to develop/roll out, easier to use, always with medic, free’s up invaluable responder vehicle luggage space etc.

Captain John Pringle a Paramedic with San Diego Fire Department has shared with me his immense infield experience of mobile first responder applications and it was enlightening to learn that building for mobile perfectly suited the occupational requirements. Staff effectiveness was vastly improved when his organisation (together with mobile handset manufacturer Palm) packaged the key set tasks in a simple easy to follow format with a feedback loop. The benefits of an familiar always to hand device are immeasurable.

Wonder of Wireless November Webcast looks at mHealth Innovations

Check out the CTIA Wonder of Wireless November Webcast as it takes a look at mHealth Innovations and how “the worlds of technology & ingenuity are colliding in mobile health, creating state-of-the-art products for a wide variety of patients”.

Image shows the Montage Systems HealthPhone™ platform being introduced by Samantha McDermott within the CTIA Wireless Health Pavilion.

Retailers… the quickest route to market for mHealth?

Brian Dolan at MobiHealthNews reports today on how AllOne Mobile has announced it’s mobile health information tools will be available to purchase within Grocery Store Chains, Pharmacies and Online Drug retailers including Walgreens, Harris Teeter, Krogers and Drugstore.com

It’s very positive that AllOne’s solution has already attracted the major retailers (something that has been no doubt been achieved through the creation of a solution that has a 0% Installation Failure Rate – an important prerequisite alluded to by Qualcomms Don Jones at the recent CTIA mHealth panel) but I wonder if such a retail approach will be able to serve some of the more demanding mHealth products that are coming to market eg. devices that need remote physician support?

Then again never underestimate the ingenuity of your local grocer – mine was retailing Swine Flu Products before the neighboring Medical Clinic had even posted a notice on it’s door informing patients with Swine Flu symptoms to stay at home!

Final Call for mHealth Companies Seeking Investment…

The Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit is set to be a monumental event in the emergence of an industry that is being created through the convergence of 2 trillion dollar industries. With a keynote by Vittorio Coloa, CEO of Vodafone Group (the worlds biggest mobile operator) this is definitely not to be missed if you want to meet with the latest and greatest opportunities to invest or partner in this exciting growth market.

As the organiser of the Investment and Partnering Stream which takes place on the afternoon of the first day, this is notice of the final call for the few remaining places available for companies who are ready to present in front of an audience of investors and decision makers who will be responsible for investing billions in this industry over the next few years.

Click here for full event details

Click here and complete a brief online form to recommend a company

Thanks,

David Doherty
Organiser of the Investment & Partnering Stream at the Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit

The solution to excessive public spending… ….more public spending?

Another great example of what happens when you stop monitoring the clinical value of a health intervention comes from the NHS Direct service (which costs UK tax payers over £150 million a year and employs over 3400 staff) as it extends it’s services to offer a “Credit Crunch Stress Line”:

“Our health advisers will spend time talking things over with you. Conversations could last a few minutes or they could last a quarter of an hour… …Whatever your problem, we’ll offer you practical advice or point you to just the right service.

Expert advice will:

* help you to look at your problems;
* provide self-help materials;
* give supportive feedback; and
* guide you to online resources.

Other help available:

* financial and debt management services
* employment and career services
* mental health services.

You may be severely depressed by job hunting. Or anxious about losing your business. You may be stressed about overdue bills. You may even be worried about losing your home. The credit crunch hits people in lots of different ways”

Whilst most of the services seem to be duplicating the services of other government supported initiatives eg Mental Health (Samaritans), Financial and Debt management services (MoneyMadeClear, Citizens Advice bureau, Directgov and the National Debt Line ), Employment and Career services (JobCentre Plus and Careers Advice) or general online information (NHS Choices) there seems to be no stopping the NHS Direct call center juggernaut from managing it all, particularly as these other established organisations face public spending cut backs.

Then again what’s not to like? It’s even got a 0300 “local rate call number” and it’s open 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week!

Free Mobile Health Report from Clinica

MedTech Market Intelligence bible AKA “Clinica” has just published a free report on Mobile Health that includes an exclusive interview with Sorin’s Stefano di Lullo discussing their new partnership with France Telecom’s Orange.

Click here to download your free copy of the Exclusive Clinica Mobile Healthcare Report

Transparency Statement: David Doherty, the author of this blog post, is currently working with Informa (the publisher of Clinica) to produce the investment and partnering stream at their inaugural Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit

21st Century Health Care: …different … better … AND CHEAPER!

Joe Rothstein, Editor of EIN News, talks in US Politics Today of the changes that we’re likely to see in the future US Healthcare system:

“If you’re not there already, it won’t be long before you will be monitoring your own weight, blood pressure, pulse and other vitals on at-home devices and sending that data to your doctor via smartphone. Coming back at you, also on your mobile phone, will be reminders to take your pills, notices of any changes in your heart rate or other bodily systems that require an office visit—or more personalized data dealing with whatever chronic condition you might have….

…If you live in a rural area where specialists are scarce, you might talk with a dermatologist who inspects your rash by broadband video, in real time, or from your local doctor’s office while she gets online advice from an urban medical center specialist talking her through a procedure…

…Your medical records will be online, of course, available for any caregiver, anywhere in the world, to diagnose you or monitor you. And you will be able to rate the quality of care you’re receiving the way you might now rate a hotel stay on Travelocity. That will give others the benefit of your experience so they can be more informed health care consumers…

…we will all be customers at the medical app store, customizing our own devices“

I can’t wait till the USA gets Video Phones and 3G Mobile Broadband so that they can start experiencing the convergence of the online world, Video Calling and Smartphones.

FireFly, GlowPhone, FlyPhone and now HealthPhone?

With only a week remaining until the Mobile Phones for the Senior Market Conference in London, Elizabeth Woyke writes in Forbes about a new entrant to the senior mobile market (“the next big thing” according to a recent interesting thread on David Wood’s Symbian Blog) as kids phone manufacturer FireFly announce plans to create new phones for the elderly and people with chronic health conditions following their takeover by GenerationOne.

Whilst marketing mobile phones to children has been contentious (due to marketing regulations and concerns over possible health risks) it’s also not been a huge commercial success for manufacturers of dedicated products as it was hard to keep prices competitive with the basic phones that are produced in much larger volumes by the big manufacturers or those that are subsidized with the operator branding. Furthermore the product designs seemingly didn’t anticipate the competition from customized casings etc or kids interests in the latest multimedia features such as games and video.

The new venture is set to produce “simple phones with easy-to-use software” but the market for those is also vulnerable to the all singing, all dancing next generation of smartphones with simple user interfaces… in my opinion it’s a brave bet to assume that granny won’t want access to an App Store when there are already about as many iPhone users aged over 55 than there are aged under 24.

Review of the NTT Docomo Wellness Mobile

I mentioned the NTT Docomo “Lifestyle Inspired Phones” before on this blog but had been let done by the lack of an exhibition stand member who had experience with the use of the services. Thanks to a reader sending me a link here’s a helpful video introduction to the device from DigInfoNews (with English commentary and subtitles)