mHealth and 4G: Where There are Opportunities, There are Challenges

The other thing is, in this economy, we’ve seen lots of people move from other industries into healthcare. Many are not familiar with the landscape in healthcare, the players, etc. The regulatory issues and the differences between the apps that help you regulate what you eat each day, and the app that tracks your medication adherence. There are fundamental differences in how those work together. And also the challenges in trying to pull information from a modern industry like the mHealth world and the health IT world, which again lags these other industries by about a decade. Trying get information back-and-forth when there isn’t widely adopted standards and a lack of interoperability, is tough.

How will social media and Health 2.0 play into the growth of these apps?

The impact of social media will be huge on healthcare for a number of reasons. It increases patient engagement and involvement. It increases connectivity between individuals. It allows for much better flow of information.

The dark side of this, going back to the consumer survey, is that for most individuals, when you ask people about the quality of care they receive, their perception of quality is based entirely on their service experience. What was it like to go to that doctor? What was it like to be treated at that hospital, or ER, as opposed to any measure of that outcome?  When I speak to a large group, I’ll ask them who has a good doctor. A bunch of people raise their hand, and I ask them how they know. The things they describe are they pay attention to me, the staff is nice, and they get me in and out on time. It’s not related to real measures of quality, like my shots are up to date or I’ve been given the proper evidence-based treatment. They don’t have that kind of information; all they know is what it’s like to go there.

What we need to move towards is a simple way for people to understand the cost and quality of their care, and what the experience is like. Much like people can do with restaurant and product reviews, we need to move into this in healthcare, with comparing real quality measures, and this data does exist.