Among the world's developed nations, mHealth programs are borne out of creative ideas, and push uphill against the establishment to prove their ROI in cost savings and clinical outcomes.
In developing nations, they save lives.
Mobile health technologies often provide the only link between the consumer and the healthcare provider in places like Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Via cellphone or laptop, a family in a remote location can connect with a doctor who can diagnose a dangerous medical condition and prescribe treatment, or provide vital information for expectant or new mothers on how to care for themselves and their children. They also offer a lifeline for the doctor, social worker or community health volunteer, linking to resources that could mean the difference between life and death.
Patricia Mechael, executive director of the mHealth Alliance, has seen these mHealth programs gradually grow through the years, to the point that they're ready to share the spotlight at the 2013 HIMSS Media mHealth Summit, scheduled for December 8-11 at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center outside Washington D.C.
"Last year there were a few (programs) that were just starting to show an opportunity for scaling," she pointed out. “This year we're definitely seeing mHealth scaling. It's an amazing confluence."
That is evident in the creation of a Global Health program at the summit, as well as keynote presentations from Danish Minister of Health Astrid Krag, whose nation is at the forefront of the mHealth movement in Europe; and Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Bangladesh who helped launch the global Grameen Movement.
While Krag and organizations like the GSMA will focus on efforts to advance mHealth in Europe, North America and other developed nations, a lot of attention will undoubtedly be focused on programs and places where mHealth is literally saving lives.
mHealth is taking the form of mobile messaging to improve maternal and newborn health through the immensely successful Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) in Bangladesh and South Africa, while in Nigeria it can be found in the Save One Million Lives initiative, launched last year by Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, with help from the mHealth Alliance, Intel and others, to curb the 1 million deaths of women and children each year due to preventable causes. And in Malawi, text messages counsel families on proper nutrition for children. mHealth is also being used to combat the spread of such deadly diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and tuberculosis in places including India, Ghana, Kenya, Colombia and Chile.
"It used to be that you could count the number of mHealth programs on one hand, but that isn't the case any more," said Mechael, who helped develop the Global Health track for this year's summit as both the mHealth Alliance and the summit celebrate their fifth year in existence. "mHealth is now mainstreaming into global health faster than anybody thought. There's a huge demand for mHealth and a huge desire to engage in mHealth … but there are still so many questions as to how to make that happen."
[See also: All of our coverage leading up to the mHealth Summit in one place.]
While organizations and companies such as UNICEF, Vodaphone, the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation are most often referenced when talking about meaningful mHealth projects, they're not the only ones making an impact.
There's Health eVillages, a program launched in 2011 by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for justice & Human Rights and Donato Tramuto of Physicians Interactive. The initiative, which looks to provide mHealth tools and clinical support to healthcare providers in challenging climates around the world, has made inroads in Haiti, China, Uganda, Kenya, the Dominican Republic and some remote Pacific island nations.
"Innovation is not our problem — integration is our problem," Tramuto said during an interview this past March, after he was named one of the winners of Healthcare IT News' H.I.T. Men & Women Awards. "We have all the tools we need at our disposal. We just have to find a way to get them into the hands of the right people, then teach them how to use them."
A program launched at Florida State University in Pensacola by Mark Stavros, MD, the university's education director of emergency medicine, is making a difference in Panama's rural communities. Called FSUCares, the program places doctors and students from FSU in Filipina, Panama, each spring and equips them with some of the latest mHealth technology from GlobalMed and Scopia.
"They'd never seen that type of technology before," Stavros said of the so-called "exam room in a box" technology during an interview earlier this year. "It was really an eye-opening experience for them."
Speaking at global mHealth panel presentation during the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance's Academic and Industry Conference last month in Baltimore, Mechael said the pace of mHealth in developing nations is very strong, but barriers remain. Some nations are reluctant to adopt new technologies that would further strain their wireless networks, not to mention their budgets. Capacity and policy, she said, will play a role in any mHealth conversation going forward.
"We're seeing great leadership in many areas," she said. "But they're challenged in thinking, 'How do we do this?'"
That's a question many people are hoping will be answered next week.
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