Old Problems New Approaches : mHealth

Mobile Health (mHealth), a new initiative in health delivery—involves telemedicine, wireless health, and electronic health.  It refers to the use of mobile phones to provide limited but essential health care, that is being driven especially by older adults and the parallel increases in the prevalence of chronic conditions they experience. Chronic conditions can often be prevented by behavior change or treated through frequent monitoring and medication. An essential strategy for keeping older adults healthy means preventing chronic diseases and/or reducing associated complications. Older adults who take advantage of preventive services are more likely to remain healthy, live independently, and incur fewer health-related costs. About 80% of older adults have one chronic condition, and 50% have at least two. For those 65 years and older, the most common chronic diseases are heart disease, cancer, stroke, lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s Disease and diabetes. All of these conditions benefit from close monitoring.

The growing use of mobile phones, with their increasing capacity for more applications, has opened opportunities to monitor patients frequently by using personal mobile phones.  As cell phone use becomes increasingly cheap and accessible, mHealth technology becomes that much more viable.

Part of mHealth’s great potential for older adults, is that it brings the caregiver into the picture by allowing family or providers to access the health status of their care recipient from remote locations. The provision of an effective way to monitor a care recipient’s status from a distance has never before been so cheap and attainable.

A 2011 report by the National Alliance for Caregiving, asked caregivers what technology they desired most and what barriers stopped them from using it. They reported that the three favorite applications would include one that tracks a care recipient’s vital signs, symptoms, medications, and other information. Another would be a shared electronic log for the care recipient’s medical appointments and other caregiving needs.  This application would include an interactive feature so family members and other caregivers could use it to sign up to help. The third application was an electronic system that reminds the care recipient about their medication and dispenses pills on schedule. This application, would alert caregivers by phone or e‑mail if a dosage is not removed from the dispensing device within a certain time period.

Such applications—unimaginable only a few years ago—are within our grasp.  However the most commonly reported obstacle is still the belief that such technology would be too expensive. While today’s younger caregivers are more likely than their parents to expect more “high tech” benefits from programs like mHealth, everyone can now benefit from this technology.

Many now believe that mHealth can help with saving time, facilitating caregiving, making the recipient feel safer, making sure that medication is taken, and closely monitoring the care recipient. With Medicare and Medicaid considering charge codes for mobile health it is only a matter of time before mHealth becomes part of the arsenal within San Diego’s healthcare system. Is it time to see your phone as a health care provider?