Last year was the year in which mobile technology in health dropped onto my radar in a big way. Attending an unconference sponsored by Katrin Verclas and MobileActive allowed me the opportunity to meet great people and learn a ton about what is being done in the mobile health field. Since then I translated those ideas into a presentation (see below) and have had the chance to stay in touch with those people making it happen.
2009 also saw official interest from the federal government regarding mHealth with the development of the mHealth Summit sponsored by NIH. One of the things I’ve seen regarding mobiles in public health is focused on the developing world and global health efforts. While that initially drew me to the subject matter – I began thinking about how these technologies could be used on a domestic level, here in the United States.
Here are a few projects I’ve seen being put together here in the States mainly with gov’t focus:
- AIDS.gov, KNOW-IT campaign: Texting your zip code to a short code (566948) to gain locations for getting tested for HIV. Here’s a recent post from them on mobile tech in the future.
- CDC, Text Messaging for Health Information pilot: “CDC has launched a pilot project that is using mobile text messages to quickly share important health information about H1N1 flu and other important health topics such as hurricane preparedness information.”
- Text 4 Baby: New mobile messaging program to help inform expecting and new mothers. It’s an educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB).
Really looking forward to seeing these programs and types of programs flourish domestically to leverage the growing use of mobiles.
Feel free to let me know of any other domestic mobile health programs that I should be aware of!
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Great article regarding the potential for mHealth growth in 2010, especially regarding SMS technology. The programs you’ve listed seem to provide some valuable services for individual communities. At Globaltel Media we’ve adapted text message technology to aid patients in everything from appointment scheduling/reminders to rehabilitation support via mobile video, and our findings coincide with the results of this research. The physicians we’ve been working with overwhelmingly agree that medication/rehabilitation reminders, appointment reminders and scheduling services have been top requests from their patients. The opportunities are endless with mHealth, we are looking forward to seeing where 2010 takes us.
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