The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 2 (Apr 2014) | Page 20

Putting the 'm' into Health: How Mobile Technology is Defining...

Putting the ‘m’ into Health: How
Mobile Technology is Defining
the Future of Healthcare
By Mark Brincat, Director of Product Strategy, Exco InTouch

Around the globe, the cost of healthcare is rising. It is estimated that chronic
conditions account for more than 75%
of healthcare costs in the USA1, whilst
in the UK non-adherence to medications is said to cost the NHS over
£500M per year2. Payers recognise
that, in order to address the increasing
financial burden of healthcare, steps
must be taken to approach the treatment of chronic conditions in different
ways. Taking diabetes as an example; in
the US alone, there are around 24 million diabetes sufferers. While 18 million
of those are diagnosed, only 15 million actually receive treatment. Of that
number, as little as 6 million patients
are well controlled. It is estimated that
increased adherence could decrease
care costs of the US diabetes patients
from as much as $8,867 to $4,570 per
year, resulting in $4,297 savings per
patient3.
Mobile technology is ideally placed
to help meet this challenge. Access to
mobile and digital technology has seen
huge growth in recent years, there are
estimated to be 6.9bn mobile subscriptions globally and 96% of the world
population is now said to have access
to mobile technology. Alongside this
growth, the use of mobile technology
has changed dramatically across the
globe; from checking bus timetables
through to highly regulatory activities
such as mobile banking, we expect to
use phones to find information and
complete transactions as part of everyday life, and healthcare is no exception!
As a result, mobile technology is being
implemented across the world to provide value based health solu-

18
April 2014

tions that help patients manage their
conditions, with the mHealth market
estimated to have grown to $4.5 billion
in 20134.

GOING BEYOND THE APP
The term mHealth is often used to
describe the rapidly growing market for
health and wellbeing apps. This market is predominantly consumer facing,
and typically consists of relatively basic
services with a singular focus; activity
tracking, diet monitoring or providing condition specific information. As
a result, these limited scope apps can
often be static and research has found
that user attention span is relatively
short-lived with an average of only 3.7
uses per week, and less than a third
of users are retained for 90 days5. To
change healthcare models and impact
health expenditure in the long term,
mHealth services must go beyond apps
with such narrow focus and create integrated solutions that bring together
multiple facets into a user-friendly
interface that helps patients, and their
caregivers, self-manage their conditions. Through this approach, patients
can be empowered to take back control in their lives, helping them remain
engaged over time and ultimately leading to improved health outcomes.
At Exco InTouch, we have created
a platform approach that leverages
mobile and digital technology to create
multi-level, intelligent disease management programs that help patients, as
well as those providing their care, to
manage their conditions and improve
health outcomes. To successfully

engage patients, these services must be
adaptive solutions that incorporate a
range of complementary technologies
used across the mHealth spectrum.
The key lies in integrated solutions and
a personalized approach, combined
with aggregation and analysis of data
to provide relevant reporting that is
specifically tailored to each stakeholder
group, ranging from patients and caregivers, through to healthcare professionals (HCPs) and payers.
The range of tools which can be utilized in order to create a seamless multilevel program is illustrated through the
mHealth Interventions Wheel shown
on page 19. This modular approach
enabl \