Three Rules For a Healthy mHealth App

By JAAN SIDOROV, MD According to this Wall Street Journal article, the prospect that “your doctor may soon prescribe you a smartphone app” is ushering in a new era of m-healthiness. e-Researchers from marquee academic institutions are assessing the impact of handheld apps on medication use, symptom management, risk reduction and provider-patient communication. There’s not only an technology platform but an accompanying library of tailored e-prompts, e-reminders, e-pop-ups, e-recommendations, e-messaging, e-images and e-videos. In other words, mix one part app with one part patient and bake until quality goes up and costs go down. Unfortunately, however, what the article failed to mention is that much of that app content is based on information that is freely available in the public domain, and that these app developers have reconfigured and adapted it according to the variable interests, expertise and culture of their sponsoring institutions. While policymakers and researchers would like to believe that on-line and public-domain health information is a commodity, the fact is that buyer, purchaser and provider organizations have been accessing, downloading and branding it for years. They’ve taken a special pride of ownership in the other half of the wording, editing, formatting and presentation of that content.  That’s what makes it “theirs” for both their providers and their patients. After all, all healthcare is local. This h...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: THCB Uncategorized Source Type: blogs