All across the country research is being done on the possible value of your cell phone and the effect it can have on improving your health. The idea is to help you monitor everything from your blood sugar levels to reminding you to eat your 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables to putting on your sunscreen - all through various alerts and text messaging. The new buzz words for all this is called "medical minutes" by some research groups and mHealth (mobile health) by others.
"The University of California, San Diego, went a step further, designing a text-message program to encourage weight loss where participants texted back answers to such questions as "Did you buy fresh raw vegetables to snack on this week?" Answering allowed more customized texted diet tips. In a pilot study of 75 people, text-message recipients lost about four more pounds in four months than those given printed dieting advice..."
Read the full Washington Post story...
Nice summary on some of the potential benefits of mHealth. One of the greatest benefits of mHealth initiatives is the extensive reach it provides users. In particular, SMS or texting based solutions are able to reach each of the 3.5 billion mobile phones in use today. At Globaltel Media we've tailored our SMS-based messaging solutions to be used for a variety of healthcare related activities, from sharing information between doctors, to appointment scheduling/reminders, to rehabilitation instructions sent via mobile video. Its great to see carriers take initiative on mHealth and bodes well for the future of this developing market. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the post Robert and thanks for your response. It will be interesting to watch as the connection between mHealth and the growth of mobile phone use continues to skyrocket.
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