How mHealth Is Changing Patient Care in the U.S. and Abroad

Of all the leaps and bounds that health IT has made in recent years, arguably the one with the greatest potential for affecting care and enhancing the relationship between patients and physicians is mobile health (mHealth), which the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) defines as “the generation, aggregation, and dissemination of health information via mobile and wireless devices and the sharing of that information between patients and providers.”

Research indicates that the use of this technology is improving patient outcomes for serious conditions such as diabetes and chronic lung disease by increasing individual patients’ involvement in their prescribed plans of care.

Even better? mHealth isn’t only changing healthcare delivery in the U.S. According to the World Health Organization, it’s a player even in emerging countries where access to healthcare can be more of a challenge.

The Rise of mHealth

According to Healthcare Informatics, the paradigm shift in healthcare delivery involves emphasizing patient engagement and satisfaction. This shift is a driving factor behind the mHealth revolution. In a recent survey of more than 200 healthcare providers, the site reports that 90 percent of respondents are now using some sort of mobile device as part of their healthcare delivery system, and a full 73 percent believe that it is one of their most effective tools for improving their patients’ health outcomes.

One example of this new technology is the Apple Healthkit, which is designed to work with third-party apps to help keep a person’s medical and health information all in one place. This has basic functions such as tracking physical activity and calories, but it also allows patients to use apps that access information about their diagnoses and results from their laboratory tests, as well as share information such as blood pressure or blood sugar readings with their doctor.

Health Informatics reports that the Healthkit and similar tools are being adopted by some of the leading medical organizations in the country, including Stanford Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. Other organizations, such as Duke University’s medical school, are adopting or trying to adopt similar technologies.

What Advantages Does mHealth Offer?

So, what’s the reason behind mHealth’s rise in popularity?

According to the HIMSS Executive Summary, there are myriad advantages that help improve patient outcomes. It has been found that mHealth:

• Appears to be more sensitive to the patient’s individual needs and desires in regards to formulating plans of care.
• Increases the levels of collaboration between clinician and patient when forming a treatment plan.
• Appears to increase the patient’s cooperation in actually implementing the treatment plan in their daily lives.
• Supports patients on a daily basis as they follow their individual treatment plans.
• Allows for increased discussion and communication between the clinician and patient, and permits the clinician to quickly alter the plan of care if needed. This is great for areas in which there are fewer clinicians, because the technology can provide remote access to a patient’s healthcare providers.
• Provides the patient with ongoing information about their disease process.

In short, these apps allow for a great patient engagement — not only with their healthcare provider, but with the plan of care itself. And it’s not just in the developed world that this revolution is taking off: According to the World Health Organization, it is making a difference in emerging economies as well.

WHO Reports on mHealth Around the World

What might come as a bit of a surprise is that mHealth is not just influencing healthcare in the United States: the World Health Organization (WHO) reports its increased use in developing countries, too. According to the report, “mHealth has the potential to transform the face of health service delivery around the globe,” noting that the success of mHealth has been driven by several different factors, such as:

• Rapid advances in medical technology.
• The ability of mHealth to integrate into the pre-existing eHealth infrastructure.
• The fact that there are now 5 billion wireless subscribers worldwide, with roughly two-thirds of those subscribers from middle- or low-income countries.

In a survey of its 114 member states, WHO found that 83 percent of them have at least one mHealth program available (though many have four to six) in such areas as healthcare call centers, emergency/disaster management and preparedness, and telemedicine. And while there is a long way to go to fully integrate this technology in the poorest of the member countries, WHO is developing a road map to help make this goal possible.

In short, while still a relatively new phenomenon, the use of mHealth technology is growing in popularity both in the United States and abroad. mHealth has the potential to help patients both in the developed and developing worlds to communicate more effectively with their clinicians and to participate more actively in plans of care. In turn, this should improve overall health outcomes, especially for chronic or complicated disease processes, such as heart disease and diabetes, that are huge threats to human health on an international scale.