mHealth

At Lakes Region General Healthcare, leaders implemented a mobile health (mHealth) communication system that allows for easier dialogue between clinicians, pharmacists, case managers, and other staff members. As a result, the provider has decreased ED wait times and improved patient satisfaction.

In June of this year, the Government Employee Health Association (GEHA), Independence, Mo., the nation’s second-largest health plan for civilian federal employees and retirees, enrolled 1,500 members in a virtual weight loss management program that it says was successful with nearly 80 percent of participants in 2012. That’s a significant milestone, because it demonstrates that a Web-based technology can be an effective and relatively low-cost way for individuals to lower their health risks.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), a non-profit organization focused on the cure to Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, has introduced an iPhone app that serves as an interactive disease management tracker.

Scripps Health, the four-hospital system in San Diego, has launched Wired for Health, a clinical study aimed at evaluating whether the integration of wireless technologies, online social networks, and medicine can have a direct effect on healthcare spending.

For this month’s cover story package, Healthcare Informatics Editor-in-Chief, Mark Hagland and Associate Editor, Gabriel Perna, teamed up to write a pair of pieces on the impact of mobile health (mHealth) is having on both the patient and provider side of the spectrum. In this podcast, the two editors discuss what they both found throughout the process of writing these articles and surmise where mobility is headed in healthcare within the next few years.