m Health Initiative
2009 July 31
mHealth Initiative is a non profit organization based in US that plans to promote mobile based and other applications in healthcare that will save money, improve the quality of care, and provide better efficiency. New standards will be necessary. mHI has the objective of creating a roadmap for the new health ecosystem that will be based on mDevices, new software, new interoperability solutions, and secure wireless transmission. The mHealth Initiative will work on fostering the creation of mHealth cities or regions as examples for national and international mHealth networks. mHI will also work internationally where mHealth can leapfrog health systems in infrastructure-challenged countries.
How Mobile Devices Benefit Healthcare
- Cell phone, smart phone, and other mDevice users can store their personal health information safely and securely on their phone in order to share it with authorized healthcare professionals when healthcare services are needed.
- Specific mDevice software can provide preferred and easy communication between healthcare providers, patients, payers, pharmacists, and others, facilitating medication reminders for patients, appointment scheduling, easy emergency calling, and other functions.
- mDevices can serve as the platform for consumer health-related software such as wellness-related programs and disease management programs. A wealth of functions related to diseases ranging from asthma to diabetes, from smoking cessation to general pediatric applications, are currently being developed and tested.
- mDevices offer clinicians and patients quick access to health information for clinicians and patients. Patients can look up information about medication or symptoms of their health status. Imagine a patient looking up a specific medication after it has been prescribed at a clinic visit, noting it interacts with another of their medications that they failed to mention during their visit and alerting the clinic physician – also via the cell phone – before having the prescription filled. Clinicians, on the other hand, can access protocols at the point of care and/or other professional information that is available on the Internet while with a patient or away from their desk.
- mDevices can be very efficient tools for medical research, offering the power of the Internet and enabling patient data to be transmitted easily and instantaneously to authorized, pre-programmed research centers.
