5 ways telemedicine could address the healthcare crisis

July 7, 2011 By Heather Clancy 0 Comments and 4 Reactions

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Pretty much everyone has an opinion about the U.S. healthcare crisis, because it affects pretty much all of us. Many people also agree that emerging information technology solutions — including those that fall into the “mHealth” category — will be key in addressing that crisis. I’m going to sidestep the political ridiculousness for this particular column.

First, a definition. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mHealth as “the provision of health services and information via mobile technologies such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants.” The fact is, however, that these mobile technologies need the power of unified communications and other network infrastructure technologies to do their thing.

Some perspective on why mHealth is important. An April 2010 report from Juniper Research projects that by 2010 and 2014, healthcare providers (both private and public) could save up to $5.83 billion in costs worldwide by moving to mHealth technologies. Again, remember that these approaches are only as good as the infrastructure that drives them.

A March 2011 draft “position paper” from the Center for Technology and Aging suggests that mHealth and telemedicine technologies could greatly benefit older adults and the “people who support them.” If you look at the figures presented in the paper, you’ll see that the usage rate of things like mobile phones and tablets is actually pretty high among older adults. The AARP released some figures in January 2011, for example, suggesting that cell phone usage among adults more than 50 years in age was about 70 percent; smartphone usage was significantly lowers, around 7 percent of this age group. Tablet penetration is much lower, about 42 percent among this age group, according to the AARP.

There are six primary applications that the industry is watching carefully. They are:

1. Chronic disease management: This refers to applications that help people track ongoing conditions, such as diabetes, to avoid duplicative testing and avert crises that could be avoided through the detection of early warning signs.
2. Medication adherence: Ever forget to take your vitamins? This is a category of technologies that could help ensuring that proper dosages are maintained and also with forestalling any possible drug contraindications.
3. Location and safety tracking: Applications typing together location technologies with monitoring systems to help provide faster action in the case of emergencies (such as a fall).
4. Access to personal health information: The holy grail of personal health records is to create a central repository of information that is routinely updated with ALL relevant data and accessible to all caregivers involved with a particular patient.
5. Wellness services: This refers to the services that help people track their fitness activities and dietary habits. The idea is that awareness is the first step to better wellness.

The trick for applications such as these, of course, is to make sure they are available to as many people as possible. That’s why the mobile link is so critical. But don’t underestimate that work that healthcare organizations will need to behind the scenes to make this all seem seamless.