10 Things your boss should know about mHealth

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mHealth is the step forward that gives the patient a better opportunity to access healthcare at their fingertips. It gives the ability to monitor, educate and facilitate management of medical conditions from home and through devices that we are all familiar with using. Going to see an actual doctor is often inconvenient and is something that an employee might not want to have to explain or to ask for time off for. Far better that patients take responsibility for some of the management of a medical condition themselves with a back-up of medical care.

So here are ten things that your boss needs to know about mHealth and why it is unquestionably the way ahead.

  1. mHealth, while commonly used as an interactive app, in its broadest application, can attach to a pocket, to a wrist, to clothing, to underwear or directly onto the skin to monitor health.
  2. mHealth can offer a future where there is individual self-determination providing a positive impact on the user’s individual health and the health of the public at large.
  3. mHealth can offer a future that will motivate employers, policymakers, and other professionals to create guidelines and situations that both support and promote healthy behaviour.
  4. mHealth will allow for a freer flow of information, within and outside any health care system.
  5. mHealth will contribute to a future that encourages health care providers to put real value on patients and on their data.
  6. mHealth will create a future that builds respect and trust between patients and their health care providers as well as competence in technology-supported self-and shared management of all aspects of health care.
  7. mHealth will make use of social media for greater and more effective communication.
  8. mHealth will allow for the combination of supporting health and delivering health care information for individuals and for the wider community. That information will be accessed from diverse sources, and can also include non-clinical information.
  9. mHealth will promote technology that can map and show trends in health status, and will highlight any deviations from the norm for any given person in any given scenario.
  10. mHealth will promote user friendly technologies that assimilate health activities and treatment into the rest of a patient’s life.

Finally in February 10, 2014, the Apple iStore contained almost 30,000 health & fitness apps, and over 23,000 medical apps. Many are free, some cost a few pence and others cost a substantial amount. They perform many different functions, but there is one thing all mHealth apps have in common: they all collect information about us and impart vital information to us as users and to medical professionals as they assess health and monitor treatment.

There is no doubt that mHealth solutions are already part of the future for our health and well-being but there are still many organisations involved int he healthcare sector that have yet to develop an effective mHealth strategy to help them capitalise on the opportunities that this exciting area of digital can offer .

What is mHealth?

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What do we mean when we use the term mHealth and what is a ‘mHealth app’?

Many of you will have started to hear the term mHealth being used more frequently, the EU even recently published a Green Paper on mHealth, but as with most jargon unless you are directly involved in the sector responsible for dreaming up these new buzzwords, chances are could find yourself sat in a meeting thinking what on earth is that person talking about when you hear the phrase:

“You need to develop an integrated mHealth strategy and build a suite of native mHealth apps for both iOS and Android platforms”

Here is the Wikipedia definition:

mHealth (also written as m-health) is an abbreviation for mobile health, a term used for the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers and PDAs, for health services and information, but also to affect emotional states. The mHealth field has emerged as a sub-segment of eHealth, the use of information and communication technology (ICT), such as computers, mobile phones, communications satellite, patient monitors, etc., for health services and information. mHealth applications include the use of mobile devices in collecting community and clinical health data, delivery of healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine).

In the EU Green Paper they define mHealth as:

Mobile health (mHealth) covers “medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other devise. It also includes applications (apps) such as lifestyle and wellbeing apps that may connect to medical devices or sensors (e.g. bracelets or watches) as well as personal guidance systems, health information and medication reminders provided by SMS and telemedicine provided wirelessly.

Useful mHealth/health app resources

Apart from our own resources collating mHealth statistics, events and news stories, there are some great blogs and websites that cover the topics of mHealth.

Here are our top five:

  1. iMedical apps – http://www.imedicalapps.com/
  2. mHealth professional – http://paper.li/mhealthpro
  3. Mobile Health News – http://mobihealthnews.com/
  4. mHealth Alliance – http://mhealthalliance.org/media-a-resources
  5. mHealth News – http://www.mhealthnews.com/

You can also search for and read tweets that have been posted to the following hashtags: #mHealth; #healthcareapps; #HCApps

The Benefits of E-Details

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There is no doubt that face-to-face promotion and presentation has been the major sales method of most medical device and pharmaceutical reps for decades. But the chance to sit down for a leisurely chat with the average over worked GP is fast diminishing.   It is an expensive and time-consuming way of getting things done and of getting the message across.  Pharma and healthcare companies are clamouring for more and more people ‘in the field’ as it has been proven that the face-to-face sales approach is inevitably the best.   But with doctors often feeling  “ambushed” by sales reps, is there a better way of making personal contact with physicians and getting information over in a way that does not have them looking at their watches every few minutes?

The Internet offers an option in its global dissemination of information, but if a rep is not sitting eyeball to eyeball with the medical professional, can they be sure they have understood or appreciated the benefit of the information being given, or will they simply move on if they have a question that does not appear in the FAQ list?

Enter the era of presenting information using tablets like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy.  A survey carried out in 2011 found that 70 per cent of the doctors polled, either already used or planned to use an iPad in their working life in some capacity.  So, if a medical rep turns up to do his presentation with an iPad along with a truly interactive e-detail aid the possibility of engaging the medical professional will be increased.

Initially it might be a good idea to hold a brainstorm meeting and ask sales reps to list what they see as the benefits of using tablets. Get feedback from friendly KOLs too and then plan the content, along with a list of all the functional requirements that will be needed.

As you plan your presentation, design your e-detail aid to work and render properly on the various platforms, i.e. iPad, Android etc. This will mean using an intuitive interface. Focus on making any tablet based presentation work fast and elegantly. Don’t try to cut corners with this, you need to make a good first impression, to engage interest from the word go and if there has been any compromise on your design or material it will be obvious.

It is definitely not a good idea to introduce strata of intricacy by cluttering up the presentation with features that are not going to be important to the users. Trying to cram too much in is likely to be the biggest mistake, under the misapprehension that: “The more features your presentation has, the better it will look.”  This doesn’t work. The simplest detail you can manage will invariably be the most successful in terms of your viewer remembering the message and prescribing his or her intent.

The benefit of developing an e-detail specifically for a tablet is that this device has been built specifically for you to interact and engage with any content. For example, one idea that makes a good visual impact is showing how a medical device might work. You can present product catalogues, or perhaps provide a dosage calculator to enable interaction with the medical professional. You could think of including videos or perhaps 3D images.  Try to devise engaging ways to present clinical data and always try to include mode of action demos, and even, for the more fun-loving professional – educational games!

There is no doubt that arriving with a sleek iPad will make your presence feel less intrusive than struggling in with abulging briefcase full of large product catalogues and other sales aids.  As technology races on at pace, it makes sense for pharma and medical device companies to take advantage of the benefits tablets and e-details offer.

Using Medical Apps for Diagnosing Patients

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Using Medical Apps for Virtual DiagnosisIn May of this year Isabel Healthcare announced their new mobile application (app). The app is based on Isabel’s checklist system for diagnosis. The App allows doctors and nurses and other health care providers access to the app via iPhone, iPad or iPod touch mobiles.  Diagnosis can be established with the resulting possibility of treatment for patients being delivered faster.  And this innovative tool in the physician’s armoury has claimed a coveted top app rating in Apple’s Medical App category.  Where Isabel has gone many will follow and medical apps are beginning to make their presence felt in the medical community. Taking the Isabel App as an example it has been offered for download from Apple’s App Store with three subscription choices.  Customers can sign up for weekly, monthly or annual options, with the first level, the weekly option, pitched at just under £2.00 to attract the infrequent user.

Medical apps of the type offered by Isabel typically contain many thousand disease diagnostic markers both paediatric and adult and allow doctors instant access to the technologies that will help them make vital diagnoses.  Using a mobile diagnostic app a doctor does not even need to be in his hospital or clinic to diagnose a stroke in a patient and begin lifesaving treatment.  Using brain scan images that can be accessed via a smartphone and with an accuracy proven to be almost as reliable as the results of an ‘actual’ scan viewing, diagnosis can be made instantly.  This time saving ability is vital in the treatment of stroke victims.

Medical Apps – ‘Virtual’ Diagnosis?

Not everyone has welcomed this latest innovation in virtual diagnostics. There have been reservations concerning viewing detailed and complex anatomical images on a small 3.5-inch screen, from where critical emergency diagnoses will be made. However advances in image compression, microprocessors and wireless-data bandwidth, are likely to make this 21st century advance an essential diagnostic tool for doctors. For example, a CT scan image could be sent to a ‘cloud’ of the type that is commonly used as a storage device by PC users.  Downloaded to a mobile app or tablet, doctors could then zoom in to view images in more detail.  The use of this compression method to support any medical app is critical, in particular with the sending of high-resolution brain imagery.  Digital images are very large files to download and in a time sensitive situation such image files would take an hour to download using 3G or Wi-Fi.  Compression of the file overcomes this potential problem.

In countries where patients live in remote locations, this instant access diagnostic tool could prove invaluable.  In local or rural hospitals where medical staffing is limited, the instant access to patient’s results offered via this diagnostic tool, could also prove a lifesaver.

There is no doubt that this new application of technology will make a significant impact on the way in which doctors practice medicine both in and out of a hospital setting.   Gone will be the iconic picture of the consultant, clipboard in hand, with his entourage, visiting the wards.  In its place will be armies of medics with iPads and Android tablets that they can take home with them so that they always have a ‘virtual’ presence in their hospitals.