The mobile health trend started to pick up steam halfway through last year: Since then a flurry of reports have hit the interwebs with insightful analysis and punchy interviews well worth reading.
At the close of 2009, MobiHealthNews published its own Wireless Health State of the Industry Report, which we offered up as a holiday gift to our readers. There are many other high quality reports currently available free to download, including one penned and researched by esteemed health economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn called How Smartphones Are Changing Health Care for Consumers and Providers, which the California Health Care Foundation published over the weekend. It is a must read.
We have assembled five mobile health industry reports, including Sarasohn-Kahn's as part of our early spring reading list. If you haven't yet soaked in these five mHealth reports, you are handicapping your mHealth acumen. Here's five freely downloadable reports you must read:
How Smartphones Are Changing Health Care for Consumers and Providers by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, M.A., M.H.S.A., published by the California Health Care Foundation (April 2010)
CHCF's description: "The recent adoption and use of smartphones by both consumers and providers of health care are the focus of this timely report by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. The uptake of this technology is rapid; two-thirds of physicians and 42% of the public used smartphones as of late 2009, despite the recession that began a year earlier. The creation of applications related to health and health care is also moving quickly. As of February 2010, there were nearly 6,000 such apps within the Apple AppStore. Of these, 73% were intended for use by consumer or patient end-users, while 27% were targeted to health care professionals. Apps geared to physicians include alerts, medical reference tools, diagnostic tools, continuing medical education, and patient records programs. Consumer-oriented apps include those for medication compliance, mobile and home monitoring, home care, managing conditions, and wellness/fitness. There are challenges to continued rapid smartphone growth, including business model and privacy issues." Free Download
Why we recommend it: Sarasohn-Kahn conducted dozens of interviews with a veritable who's who of thinkers working in and around smartphones in healthcare. The results are clear: A laser-focused report on the smartphone's role in healthcare. It goes without saying that smartphones have become increasingly important in the industry. (What's more Jane was kind enough to invite me to peer review the report and she also included a number of references to MobiHealthNews: The World of Health & Medical Apps. :) It's hot off the presses and as noted before, it's a must read.
Institute for the Future's Booting Up Mobile Health: From Medical Mainframe to Distributed Intelligence (January 2010 May 2009)
IFTF's description: "Mobile health is emerging at the intersection of dynamic changes in mobility patterns, health care delivery, and new mobile technologies and networks. New technologies and the services they enable will be just one piece of a larger strategy for engaging consumers anywhere, anytime. Ultimately, mobile health will create more distributed health care systems that will move from an episodic to a continuous-care model, supported by decentralized, integrated care interwoven seamlessly into our daily lives, and driven by even more advanced smart systems that help us sense and understand our actions and environments. Over the next decade, a bottom-up transformation of mobility will create a growing number of opportunities and dilemmas for the health care industry. Booting Up Mobile Health: From Medical Mainframe to Distributed Intelligence identifies the drivers shaping mobile health in the future, and forecasts new business and consumer practices that reorganize the health care system as we know it." Free Download
Why we recommend it: The IFTF really outdid themselves with this report. The introductory chapter delves into the broader implications of mobility -- not just mobile phones -- but the general and all-encompassing trend of our mobility and how it has transformed our lifestyle. The report then applies the mobility discussion to health, healthcare and wellbeing. Refreshing look for anyone currently steeped in mHealth and seeking inspiration.
mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World, published by the United Nations Foundation (2009)
UNF's description: "This report examines issues at the heart of the rapidly evolving intersection of mobile phones and healthcare. It helps the reader to understand mHealth’s scope and implementation across developing regions, the health needs to which mHealth can be applied, and the mHealth applications that promise the greatest impact on heath care initiatives." Free Download
Why we recommend it: While MHN largely has a North American focus in our news coverage, so many of the mHealth innovations and business models are coming out of so-called developing markets. The U.N. Foundation and the mHealth Alliance published this fantastic report last year and it includes more than 50 profiles of mHealth projects and pilots underway in other markets. That's right: Fifty!
FCC's National Broadband Plan: Healthcare Chapter 10 (March 2010)
Excerpt: "Mobile health is a new frontier in health innovation. This field encompasses applications, devices and communications networks that allow clinicians and patients to give and receive care anywhere at any time. Physicians download diagnostic data, lab results, images and drug information to handheld devices like PDAs and Smartphones; emergency medical responders use field laptops to keep track of patient information and records; and patients use health monitoring devices and sensors that accompany them everywhere. Through capabilities like these, mobile health offers convenience critical to improving consumer engagement and clinician responsiveness." Free Download
Why we recommend it: In the US especially, so many of the barriers for mobile health services are related to the government: Reimbursement, liability, medical device status, etc. The FCC put together an entire chapter on connected health in its recently published National Broadband Plan. While the document is largely filled with suggestion for other agencies, the FCC has outlined many of the key regulatory barriers facing mHealth and in some cases it has suggested other agencies do something about them.
Wireless & Mobile Health, a Triple Tree Industry Analysis (September 2009)
Triple Tree's description: "Mobility in healthcare is finally having a meaningful impact on the way care solutions are marketed, delivered, consumed, and administered. Collaboration, consumerism, generational attitudes about mobile devices, and a wide range of macro-economic trends are driving this change. Since TripleTree's initial forays into this sector over four years ago, innovations in Wireless and Mobile Health (mHealth) and the adjacent areas within healthcare and technology have grown markedly. Four years ago mHealth solutions were, for the most part, early stage initiatives geared exclusively toward tech-savvy clinicians and forward-thinking hospitals. Today, both technologies and attitudes are changing, making mHealth approachable to a broader audience including physicians, nurses, patients, payers, healthcare administrators, and consumers." Free Download
Why we recommend it: MobiHealthNews cut its teeth on the early mHealth reports published by investment firm Triple Tree and the firm's latest publication "Wireless & Mobile Health" is just as helpful to industry vets and newbies alike. This pulse check for the industry includes one thing that most other analysts in the space lack: Perspective. Triple Tree has been tracking wireless health for years and years. Don't be one to miss out.
