I came across this really cool mobile health tool matrix by BJ Fogg. Here it is embedded below:
I think this is an interesting way to look at mobile health tools. Although, the most powerful part of this matrix is it shows the breadth of mobile health tools. The possibilities are nearly endless. In fact, it makes it a challenge to cover because the idea of mobile health is so broad.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.
Every morning before I get out of bed, I look at all the headlines on my news widget. The last section I usually look at is the health news. Today, a headline caught my attention — it said something about thirty-five percent of American adults consult “Dr. Google” to diagnose illness. This definitely sounded like something up my alley, so I read it, and wanted to share the information here.
I couldn’t find the article that I originally read, but this one from CBSNews.com provided the same information. Just today, findings from The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project were published. Here are some of the most interesting findings:
- 59 percent of adults using the Internet have looked online for health info in the past year
- 35 percent have sought out information online, specifically trying to diagnose theirs, or someone elses’, medical condition
- After apparently finding out what their condition was online, 46 percent felt they should seek help from a health provider, 38 percent felt they could treat it at home, and 11 percent said it was in between.
- 41 percent had a doctor confirm the condition, thirty five percent didn’t consult a physician, and 18 percent were corrected by their physician on what the condition was.
I thought this was all pretty interesting. The study also found that women are more likely to look information up online about health. That sounds about right to me — I don’t think my husband has EVER looked up something about a medical condition online, while I probably do every other day.
I think the fact that almost half of those that looked up information were able to have the condition they “diagnosed” themselves with confirmed with a physician shows how information found online is getting better. The authors did say this though, about these findings:
It is important to note what these findings mean — and what they don’t mean. Historically, people have always tried to answer their health questions at home and made personal choices about whether and when to consult a clinician. Many have now added the internet to their personal health toolbox, helping themselves and their loved ones better understand what might be ailing them. This study was not designed to determine whether the internet has had a good or bad influence on health care. It measures the scope, but not the outcome, of this activity.
What I think this study does show, however, is that it’s now more important than ever to make sure there’s good, reliable information out there for people to consult. A decent percentage of the people surveyed didn’t seek medical attention after their self-diagnosis, and it would be unfortunate if someone got incorrect information and really did need to see a doctor.
If anything, I’m just happy to see that there are others who consult Dr. Google as much as I do!
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
It was only a matter of time before the CDC developed a mobile app — and it looks like it is jam-packed with features. Unfortunately for me, it isn’t compatible with my mobile device, but I was able to read enough about it, to make me wish I could download it. The CDC is one of my go-to websites, so I’m sure the mobile app is just as good.
Available for most Android and iOS devices, this is free for all. Some of the features include:
- CDC Health articles: These are written by “subject matter experts and health communicators,” and are on a variety of topics.
- Disease of the week: This feature has quizzes, prevention tips, images and videos pertaining to a certain topic. I like to think of this as “convince yourself that you have this disease” of the week. Okay, not really. But I could see myself doing that.
- CDC Vital Signs: This contains information that relates to public health topics, and “calls to action” about them. It has information on everything from seatbelt use to HIV testing to obesity.
- Newsroom: Simple enough, this contains press releases from the CDC. They often release important information, so this might be helpful to have on hand.
- Podcasts
For those accessing the CDC app from a tablet, it has been optimized to work better there. It can be used on the iPad, and the Google Play Store tested (and fount it to work well) on the Google Nexus 7″, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″, Amazon Kindle Fire, Motorola Xoom 10.1″, Samsung Galaxy 1, 7″, and the Samsung Galaxy 2, 7″.
From what I can tell, this is a great resource. For anyone that follows the CDC on a regular basis, this is a must-have. I think it would be interesting if the CDC would add some kind of notification system — if there’s an outbreak of illness or disease on someone’s area, they would be instantly notified. That could end up causing widespread panic, but I think it could be a great feature. Overall though, I wish I could download this app to my phone, because it does have a lot of different functions.
As I mentioned, this is a free app available for both Android and iOS devices.
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
We’ve talked about the FDA regulating mobile apps several times here on Smart Phone Health Care.
And now, a new debate on this topic has surfaced — Who should regulate mHealth apps?
Currently, the question is should the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health be in charge of regulation, or should an entirely new department be created? Some believe that special attention needs to be given to mHealth, including Rep. Mike Honda. He is introducing a bill called “Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act,” which proposes creating the “Office of Mobile Health.” Several sources state that this bill will “ensure that competition, innovation, and entrepreunership in the mobile app market” won’t be subject to the “regulatory issues” that are usually applied to “traditional, non-software device types.”
As is expected, there are mixed feelings on this, but according to The FDA Law Blog, this “proposed bill is likely to be welcome by many mobile app developers – in particular the same or startup ones who still wonder why their products would be subject to FDA regulatory oversight at all.”
The article finishes with this:
So the question still remains as to whether medical mobile apps should be regulated by FDA’s CDRH, another office independent CDRH, or simply an office separate from FDA altogether.”
They option they failed to mention though, is the possibility of no regulation at all. Regulating mHealth apps could very well stifle creation. If there are a whole bunch of rules and regulations put in place, many would-be app creators may not want to go to the effort of getting approved, and some ideas may never go further. It’s definitely something to think about. Personally, if the only options are to be regulated by the CDRH, or have an mHealth office created, the mHealth office would be more preferable. Then there would be more focus on getting apps and devices regulated quickly and efficiently, and hopefully more willingness to work with app creators. And, if it is true that competition and innovation won’t be affected negatively, it might not the worst thing ever. We’ll see.
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
What are some of the challenges that have been found with mHealth? Fierce Mobile Health Care discussed five of the most pressing ones that were listed in a recent article at the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The reasons are:
These are definitely concerns for a reason. As I’ve reviewed different mHealth apps and websites, I often find myself wondering about the privacy — is my information somehow being tracked? I especially have thought about this as I’ve started using a patient portal for my son’s health care. I don’t want anyone being able to view private information concerning my son. One would hope that before launching these services, potential data breaches have been prevented as much as possible. However, it is a risk that one takes when allowing their information (or, in my case, my son’s) to be put in a place that may be a victim of a data breach.
I think one of the biggest issues is that of keeping people involved. I mean, it’s easy to get excited about mHealth, but it’s also very easy to fall of that bandwagon. There needs to be away to keep patient engagement high . . . Though I’m not sure what that would be.
I don’t know much about the other issues cited, but as I read the journal entry and the article as well, I could definitely see why there is cause for concern. I just wonder what can be done — any suggestions? What do you feel are the biggest challenges mHealth faces?
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
Next on the agenda on our journey through a list of five personal data innovations to watch is Traqs.
There are SO many different gadgets out there to help enhance workouts and overall health. However, it can be hard to keep track of them. I have all sorts of apps downloaded on my phone, but it becomes kind of a tedious task to go through and individually check up on each one. That’s where Traqs comes in.
It has a dashboard that collects all the data from various gadgets and apps into one place. So instead of checking every single app for updates, only one is now needed. Unfortunately, for the time being, there are only a few gadgets that are currently compatible with the system — Fitbit, Withings, Zeo, Garmin, and other GPS devices. However, the company promises for more integration soon.
It is currently in beta-testing, and one must request an invite in order to possibly get in on this before it’s available to the public. As such, the website doesn’t provide a lot of information, but it does boast of the following features:
- Track your life — users can track just anything from fitness and sleep to their current location.
- Plug n’ Play — it’s compatible with quite a few devices and more apps/devices will be integrated soon
- Access your data — store, sync, or download anything needed from devices
- Visual dashboard — a personalized hub to help monitor progress and see results
- Reports — data taken from devices can be generated into a report
- Location Aware — This creates your “top places” and creates maps according to GPS data that can be imported.
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
Since we’re on the topic of making apps easier to use, I thought I’d comment on another article I read at Fierce Mobile Care.
Mobile health apps are being created left and right. Some are successful, others are not. The question many developers should be asking themselves is how to separate their app from one of the more than 10,000 medical and healthcare apps currently available? Show value and make it simple, according to this article.
The author of the article makes a good point:
The problem is that too many of the apps are duplicative. After all, how many BMI calculators does a person need? Far fewer are focused on managing chronic conditions, though apps to help manage diabetes tend to be among the most popular.
I imagine a BMI calculator is far more simple to make than an app that is designed to help treat chronic illnesses. But like this person said . . . how many BMI calculators do you actually need? To be honest, I don’t even need one — I have a browser that can give me that information just as quickly, plus it doesn’t take up room on my phone.
The article referenced another articles called “What’s the Matter With Mobile Health Apps Today?” There were a lot of interesting points made, and I think that this graph really displays her opinion well:
I download lots of mHealth apps to my phone, and to be honest, most of them end up getting deleted after I realize I never use them. Which is sad, I know, but life gets busy and I don’t find them absolutely essential to my life, and many of them are just time consuming to understand. Rhona Finkel, author of the article explains the phenomenon (and it makes me feel better to know that only 20 percent of users use an app again the day after it’s downloaded; 5 percent after a month, and almost 0 at 3 months):
Fundamentally, it seems, it’s a little like starting a new exercise program. Everyone starts off enthusiastic, buys a new running outfit, fits themselves with a new pair of Nikes and sets off running every day. By week two it’s down to a light job twice a week. A month into it people are back in their sweats, sitting around the TV with a bowl of potato chips.
It’s like Rhona was watching my life.
But why is it that apps aren’t “sticking?” Are the only ones that really get used consistently ones that are “prescribed” to patients — and even then, those apps probably go largely unused. Here’s Rhona’s guess:
I’ll tell you what’s wrong in a nutshell. It’s boring and time-consuming to enter the data required by so many apps to get the most bang for your buck. I mean to enter my calories consumed, my medicines taken, my notes in my gratitude journal. But in the end I’m really more of a potato-chip-on-the-couch type of app consumer than one enthusiastically willing to exercise my fingers and thumbs.
The bottom line is, an app needs to be interesting. Interesting enough that person is excited to open it, rather than dread it. We live in a world where people get bored easily. Should apps incorporate games, music, and lots of flashy things? I don’t think so. That’s not what health is all about. H&HN Daily’s writer Ian Morrison suggests “that complexity and confusion are also a major part of consumer engagement issues . . . [and] advises that hospitals keep it simple with their products and services because patients are reluctant to engage in their health with confusing option.”
mHealth apps are supposed to make our lives easier, and really, I think they would if we spent as much time using them as we do playing Angry Birds. Have any of you found apps that meet the goals of showing value and being simple?
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
Earlier today, I was involved in a discussion about technology, and how “older generations” have a harder time understanding, or even wanting to be involved, in the latest innovations. As I listened to others talk about this topic, I couldn’t help but think about how often I see articles in the health care IT world concerning this very idea. Older doctors are hesitant to embrace EMRs. Smart phone apps can be confusing for someone who grew up with a phone that you had to spin the dial to call anyone (and, well, they can be confusing for me too!). We came to the conclusion that most of us just don’t like change, and someday, when we’re being told we need to “get with the times,” we’ll be longing for the early days of smart phones and technology.
Anyways, after this discussion, I was reading the latest articles over at Fierce Mobile Health Care, and came across one that seemed pertinent to the topic. Apparently, quite a few of the diabetes apps have posed some problems for older users. The article cites a study that was done that analyzed three different diabetes tracking apps that had a 4 star rating or above. The researchers discovered that “for people with declines in cognition, vision, and motor skills, they can be difficult to use — which might lead to a stop in their use entirely.”
Because of this study, the researchers, North Carolina State University’s Laura Whitlock and Anne McLaughlin, are hoping to convince app designers to consider the needs of older users when developing apps. They found that many of the problems in the three apps analyzed were easily fixed, but if they weren’t fixed, many older users would have a hard time using them.
There has been a lot of success with diabetes tracking and adherence apps, especially with people ages 13 to 19. However, because diabetes is a disease that many older people have, it would be nice if these apps could be made more accessible to them. They need to be simple. The text needs to be bigger, and the colors must be easy to read. It may not seem like a big deal to a teenager, or young adults, but for someone who hasn’t been raised with this kind of technology — it makes a big difference.
I do hope that app developers will take the needs of this “older generation” in mind as they create apps. Maybe two different versions could be made — a more “advanced” version, and a simple one. I believe that many people could benefit from health apps, and they should be easily usable by everyone. Obviously, some apps can be designed towards people who are more tech savvy. But for apps that deal with diseases that may affect a large demographic of people, some of the suggestions made in this article should be taken into consideration.
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
Next on the list on our journey through a list of five personal data innovations to watch that I talked about last week is Studycure.
Now, before I get everyone too excited, this website is in beta, so it’s a bit rough. You have to request an invitation, but I got mine within about five minutes of registering. Despite all that, I love the idea of Studycure.
To put it simply, it’s part motivation to get healthier and happier, part experiment. Sometimes, when you are trying to accomplish a certain goal, such as weight loss, it’s hard to know what is working, and what is not. Studycure users take a basic, scientific procedure — an if, then statement — and apply it to different “theories” concerning their health. You can select any amount of time you want to test out your if, then experiment, and at the end of that time period, the data is analyzed and helps you to make a decision on that particular theory. As I’m writing this, it sounds kind of confusing, but it makes total sense. Here’s a video from the website, which makes things far more clear:
There are quite a few different sections, like sleep, diet, exercise, and spirituality. Before creating my own tasks, I decided to see what other experiments were going on. By doing this, I was able to get a better feel for the website. People can put a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on experiments that are listed, and you can join ones that have already been created. Because a lot of the experiments that were already created were along the same lines as what I was going to do, I just joined those. The more the merrier, right? You can invite friends and family to join in, or just to see progress. You can even share the data with healthcare professionals.
Here are the four I decided to try out for seven days:
IF: I turn off my computer at 11pm, THEN: I won’t feel tired in the morning
IF: I make a ‘to-do’ list, THEN: I will be less stressed
IF: I eat breakfast, THEN: I’ll lose weight
IF: I exercise for 20 minutes or more each day, THEN: I will feel happier
From what I gather, users receive email or text reminders throughout the day, encouraging them to keep going. As the video mentioned, articles and studies that are discovered concerning your topics of choice will be recommended, as well as studies you can participate in. At the end of your “experiment,” you can determine whether or not it really worked or not by using the data compiled by Studycure.
I’m excited to see if this works. It’s definitely an interesting idea and I think there is a lot of potential for expansion. I could see doctors using Studycure to try and determine patterns in patients lives, and help them eliminate (or create) certain habits. Only time will tell if Studycure will take off. Have you joined or created any experiments on Studycure?
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
Personal data tracking is one of the latest trends in the mHealth. There’s a lot of data tracking devices available, making it easier than ever to track health and exercise. Allie Hastings, at TheNextWeb.com, wrote about five personal data tracking innovations to watch out for a few weeks ago. These are some pretty awesome devices, so I decided to look more into them and share what I found with all of you.
Today, I’ll discuss Sano Intelligence.
First off, what is it?
According to its website, “Sano is building a small, wearable sensor that can capture and transmit blood chemistry data continuously to virtually any device.”
So I’ll admit, when I first read this, I wasn’t totally sure what it meant. However, I soon discovered that this has the potential to change lives. Already, Sano is able to report glucose and potassium levels. It’s a patch, and as far as I can tell, doesn’t require any needles. I can only imagine how much easier that would make life for diabetics who are always having to monitor their blood sugar levels with blood samples.
Sano Intelligence appears to be expanding the solution to monitor other health issues. The possibilities seem endless. Wouldn’t it be great if people that are constantly having to get their blood drawn, could use something like this — like people who have Leukemia, or other types of cancer, where CBC is monitored. I’m not sure that it will be able to track everything, but it’s definitely a big step in the right direction for patient home monitoring. For those that have a hard time remembering to test themselves, the fact that Sano is wearable is a big deal. It sounds like you can just put it on and then forget about it, more or less.
This is definitely the beginning of a new era of home monitoring devices, and Sano is setting the bar high. Hopefully, other companies will take it as a challenge, and we’ll see similar devices released in the future. I’m excited to see what else Sano Intelligence has up their sleeve, as they continue to fullfill their mission — to make diagnostics continuous, connected, and cheap,
Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.
