#mHealth: Hype or Reality? What needs to be done?

Today is the last day of the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This afternoon, the closing session started with a panel discussion titiled, "mHealth: Hype or Reality? What needs to be done?" The panelists included: Neil Versel, FierceMobileHealthcare; Paulanne Balch, MD, Physician Lead, Health Connect Messaging, Kaiser Permanente; John Mattison, MD, CMIO, Kaiser Permanente, and C. Peter Waegemann, mHealth Initiative.

Let's start with the personal health record (PHR) hype. Are consumers even using PHRs? Perhaps patients are expecting too much too soon. Within closed systems like a Kaiser Permanente, you'll find active engagement among consumers who are using integrated PHRs.

Mobile Motivation for Adolescents to Promote Wellness #mHealth

Today is the last day of the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This afternoon, I attended a session titled, "Mobile Motivation for Adolescents to Promote Wellness." The presenters were Tara Cousineau, PhD, Founder of BodiMojo and Carol Torgan PhD. BodiMojo.com a heath community web site for teens created in collaboration with teens and health experts. With initial funding from a National Institutes of Health grant, BodiMojo built a platform that teens believe will work.
 
We know that 25 million teens are unhappy with their bodies. Up to 12 million teens are engaging in problematic weight management behaviors. There are opportunities to focus on prevention when it comes to teens. But, are teens overexposed to technology? 8 to 18 year olds are spending 7.5 hrs/day using entertainment media. When we think about the consequences, we're seeing changes in sleep, academic performance, and possibly health outcomes. The average teen send 100 text messages/day. Given that teens have actively adopted mobile technology, how can we leverage technology to promote wellness?

#mHealth : Longitudinal Health for Diabetes Care (in Hawaii)

Today is the last day of the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

Joseph Humphry, MD, Health Center Medical Liaison, University of Hawaii. Dr. Humphry spoke about some longitudinal studies evaluating the effect of mHealth in diabetes care in Hawaii. Longitudinal health is a care delivery system that allows continuous interaction between the care team and the patient using mHealth technology. It focuses on the use of social support networks for patients and their families.

They are currently in the process of completing a feasibility study (Ohana Health 2009) in Hawaii with 15 patients with diabetes. They are using a comprehensive disease management program (CDMP) and uploading glucose values. 5 patients are using Bluetooth enabled smartphones to upload their glucose values.

Here's what they found:

• Patients with limited exposure to technology are able to use remote monitoring
• Patients respond positively to graphs and charts of their glucose values
• Some patients were experiencing "upload fatigue"

International #mHealth Perspectives

Today was the first day of the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. It's been a full day of presentations and discussions about mobile health. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This afternoon, there was a presentation focusing on international perspectives on mHealth. The presentation was titled, "The Most Advanced Hospital in the World? Report from Severance Cardiovascular Hospital in Korea" by Byung-Chul Chang, MD. This hospital is part of the Yonsei University Health System (YUHS).  Dr. Chang spoke about the digital infrastructure that's found in their hospital. He showed a marketing video that demonstrates how doctors in their hospital are using mobile PCs, smartphones, RFID, and other technologies. I love the idea of an automatic payment system that leverages a card (similar to a credit card) and an ATM-like machine in the hospital lobby.

Mobile Technology for Clinical Practice #mHealth

This post is published on MobileHealthComputing.com

The Future for Physician Mobility #mHealth

Today is day #1 of the International mHealth Networking Conference in San Diego and the day is starting to wrap up.

As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This afternoon, I attended a session titled, "A New and Better State of the Future for Physician Mobility." The speaker was Richard Pentella from PatientKeeper.  He spoke about the mobility of physicians and then spent some time focusing on verbal orders in the era of HITECH and CPOE..

So, let's take a look at verbal orders. How do we deal with this when a hospital is relying on computerized physician order entry (CPOE)? Back in the day of paper orders, it was easy to call a verbal order and then swing by the chart to sign the verbal order at a later time/date. Now, the implementation of verbal orders is getting more complicated as hospitals are aiming to become 100% digital.

Healthcare Unwired: Delivering Healthcare Anywhere #mHealth

This post is published on MedicalSmartphones.com

Now attending the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference #mHealth

I'm now in San Diego and I'm attending the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the 2nd mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

If you'd like to follow these updates on Twitter, make sure to follow this #hashtag: #mHealth.

Today is day #1 and it's been a great morning so far.

C. Peter Waegemann, Vice President of mHealth Initiative Inc., kicked things off by speaking about "Communication-Enhanced Healthcare." How much do you know about mHealth and the history of mHealth? The world of mHealth is rapidly evolving and we're seeing new communication systems getting implemented in the world of health care. mHealth is a term that is also accepted internationally and it's great to see some international representation here at the conference.  One of the presentations here focuses around Severance Hospital in South Korea. In many developing countries, the Internet is solely focused around the mobile web because the people who live in those countries may have mobile phones but they don't have laptops or desktops. 

The term mHealth is universally recognized because "mHealth" blends perspectives from the following:

• Telecare and telemedicine
• Connected health
• Wireless health

Perhaps the biggest area of opportunity for mHealth is in the area of clinical documentation. We're living in an era where we're seeing communication-enhanced healthcare. As speech recognition technology improves, mobile devices may play more integral roles in the area of clinical documentation because you won't be relying on a keyboard for data entry. Wouldn't it be great if we could just put a medical transcriptionist into your smartphone?

The keynote was presented by John Mattison MD, Chief Medical Information Officer, Kaiser Permanente. He spoke about "Healthcare meets Wellness: The Critical Role of Mobile Services."

Dr. Mattison started by polling the audience with some trivia:
Have you heard of clinical ontology (not oncology, but ontology)? How about mirror neurons?
Did you know that 30 countries have visited Kaiser Permanente to see their integrated health IT model?