What is mHealth?

According to the World Health Organization (2011), mHealth or mobile health, is any “medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices” and other wireless devices.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health defines mHealth as the "diverse application of wireless and mobile technologies designed to improve health research, healthcare services and health outcomes" (Neilsen, 2014).

Why mHealth?

The Future of mHealth

Chronic diseases are medical diagnoses without quick resolutions, such as hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, asthma, obesity, depression and diabetes. As these account for a significant portion of Alberta's healthcare budget, how can the future of mHealth reduce these costs?

mHealth - Monitoring Chronic Diseases

Control of chronic disease symptoms and timely intervention with arising issues will ease the financial burden placed on healthcare systems. For this to occur, future mHealth apps would need to monitor patient results, track patients movements, monitor medications, provide emergency responses and manage healthcare assets.

Monitor Patient Results - mHealth technology of the future will allow diabetics to record their blood glucose levels directly into their smartphones without the requirement of an additional monitoring device. Patients will then track their levels which will then be transmitted to a healthcare specialist. Any negative trends can be dealt with immediately. Alternatively, for patients who are residing in remote locations, this technology will reduce the need for patients to travel to review results with endocrinologists.

Tracking Patients - While this may seem like an invasion of privacy, tracking patients with Alzheimer's, dementia or other cognitive impairments will not only aid in the safety of individuals but allow individuals to remain in their homes or with their loved ones (Parmar, 2014). Tracking apps are currently available but new technologies are being created to allow the individual to be monitored without a smartphone. GPS bracelets and insoles are being introduced to the market to provide peace-of-mind for family members. Patient home monitoring is soon to be a growing business with wearable sensors learning the patterns of the individual alerting family or healthcare specialists if patterns change (i.e., changes in sleeping or waking patterns, changes to appetite or even changes in gait) as any of these may indicate changes in the patient's health (CarePredict, 2015).

Monitoring Medications - Future mHealth technology will go beyond providing alerts for patients to take medications. In the US alone, it is estimated $100 to $300 billion dollars in health-related costs per year is associated with patients not taking medications correctly or at all (Proteus Digital Health, 2015). Typically, this occurs in patients with cognitive disorders or some mental illnesses. Digital medication, currently in clinical trials, will alert the healthcare provider when the medication has been taken or if the patient has not taken the medication as per the prescribed dosage or timeline. In turn, this has significant potential to reduce the costs to the healthcare system.

Emergency Responses - mHealth, in relation to responding to emergencies, has many future potential uses. Besaleva and Weaver (2014) suggest the development of a crowdsourcing app to allow emergency dispatchers to obtain a better picture of the emergency prior to first responders arriving. This will ensure the best use of resources thus reducing the cost of emergency responses. In addition, prototype ambulance drones link to cell phone signals when emergency call are placed. If the patient requires medication or a defibrillator, the drone will fly this out to the patient in distress. An on-board camera connected to an emergency dispatcher will provide the much needed instructions to administer medications or to resuscitate a patient (Starr, 2014).

Asset Management - While this application of mHealth does not have a direct link to monitoring patient conditions, proper asset management has a significant impact on healthcare budgets. Loss of medical supplies and equipment due to theft or the potential of medications to spoil due to improper storage could be avoided with the application of a GPS or a temperature-monitoring system (Parmar, 2014). In addition, an app which inventories equipment and supplies on individual hospital units could prevent the purchase of redundant materials.

Summary

As the application of mHealth is still in a growth phase, limited research has been conducted to examine cost benefits on a larger scale. Initial findings in smaller clinical settings have seen a reduction of healthcare costs for 51% of physicians enabling mHealth technology (Leventhal, 2015).

While many of these mHealth technologies are in a prototype phase, some applications are in the process of being released to the market. As with any new technology, limitations exist. Compliance from the patient, adoption by the healthcare specialist, the resources to deal with an increase in patient data, embracing of technology by older populations, privacy and confidentiality of electronic health information, or health law inconsistencies between countries when an individual uses a service from another country.

With mHealth technologies explored as a response to the ever-rising cost of healthcare, logic determines acceptance of these future technologies could manage chronic disease effectively resulting in fewer emergency department visits, shorter inpatient hospital stays and fewer doctor visits.

What does the future of mHealth mean for education? As I teach in health information programs in a polytechnic setting, I challenge my students to embrace technology and to examine how it can be used to better communicate with a healthcare team.

As this field is evolving and future uses are still emerging, uncertainty about how and what to apply within the educational setting exists. For current allied heath students, nursing and medical students, I believe educators can best prepare these future professionals to embrace technology, engage with various technologies and to ask how can technology be used to solve problems in healthcare.