The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 6 (Dec 2014) | Page 26

Empowering Patients: How the mHealth Vision has become a Reality
Continued from page 23

estimated to be 6.9bn mobile subscriptions globally and 96%[4] 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 help
patients manage their conditions, with
the mHealth market estimated to have
reached $4.5 billion in 2013[5].
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 days[6].
So, if mHealth is to truly revolutionise
health outcomes, there needs to be a paradigm shift in what it can achieve in terms
of patient engagement. mHealth is not
simply about patients downloading apps
to their mobile devices which do nothing more than display simple metrics; it
is all about providing dynamic programs
that help patients, and those providing
their care, to manage their conditions and
improve health outcomes. The key to a
successful mHealth program is to engage
patients over extended periods of times.
This can be done by building integrated
systems that use a variety of input materials (medication tracking, medical or lifestyle device data) and patient assessments
– diaries and questionnaires – to tailor
responses, which, for example, could be
dashboards, content on a portal or automated alerts to Healthcare Professionals
(HCPs) to make the service interactive
and personalized in order to engage the
patient over extended periods of time.
A truly personal service to