So Many mHealth Apps…So Few Users

This tweet really caught my eye today:

While this tweet and blog post reference diabetes apps, the same could be said for any category of mHealth apps. In fact, it might be able to apply to mHealth as a whole. There are so many apps in every category and not enough users. Is this a problem?

The answer is yes, and no. Certainly, it’s a problem for all of these app developers that they don’t have users. You could make the argument that some of them don’t need that many users, but most of them need some sort of scale to really make an impact on the world and a successful business. So, this is a problem. If they don’t get scale, many of them will close up shop and move on to other things.

While this could be a troubling thing, it can also be seen as a very good thing. There is a flood of companies and people working on creating innovative mHealth applications. The more people working on the problem, the more I like our chances of finding something truly incredible. This is a very good thing.

It will be an interesting next few years as we see the wheat separated from the chaff.

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January 27, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John 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: and and .

Filed Under: Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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While at the mHealth Summit I had a chance to meet with Cerora. At first I wasn’t all that excited to see another piece of EEG hardware. I’d seen one before, and it seemed the science of it was so early that we still hadn’t seen many real world results that were worth talking about. However, when I started talking to the people at Cerora, I was impressed by their linear focus on using the hardware for just one purpose as opposed to a company with a technology that’s trying to find a solution. Plus, I love that they had plenty of clinical study background as well.

However, the device itself still wasn’t as interesting to me as how they would pair the EEG with Google Glass. Sure, Google Glass seems like just another toy, but they had a vision for how to use Google Glass that I hadn’t heard before. They were interested in using the accelerometer in Google Glass and I believe they said the eye tracking potential to be able to monitor someone’s gait. For example, when they walked were they swaying from side to side in an abnormal way.

To be honest, I may not even be doing justice to what they have in mind. However, the concept is what I found most interesting. Could Google Glass be used as an amazing health tracking device or as a health research device? I think Cerora might be on to something combining Google Glass with their EEG.

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January 24, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John 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: and and .

Filed Under: Eyeware Computing  Fitness Trackers  Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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Fitness Tracker Apps Ranked

Time recently ranked the various Fitness trackers. I can never resist a list, so I thought I’d share their list. They offer some more commentary on their list, but I think the totality of the list itself is the most interesting thing. Look how many fitness tracker options there are out there.

26. Polar Electro Wearlink + Transmitter with Bluetooth

25. Under Armour Armour39

24. Sigma Sport R1

23. Scosche Rhythm

22. Adidas Pacer Bundle

21. Polar Electro H7

20. Polar Electro H6

19. Polar Electro Stride Sensor

18. Iqua Beat

17. BodyMedia FIT Link

16. Fitbit Zip

15. LifeTrak Move C300

14. SYNC Burn

13. Jawbone Up24

12. BodyMedia FIT Core

11. Striiv Play

10. Nike Fuelband

9. Nike Fuelband SE

8. Jawbone UP

7. Lark Life

6. Fitbit Flex

5. Withings Pulse

4. Misfit Wearables Shine

3. Basis B1

2. Fitbit One

1. Fitbit Force

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January 21, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John 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: and and .

Filed Under: Fitness Trackers  Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Wearables
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A Yelp for Medical Treatment

There’s a great new Las Vegas Startup company, HealClick, that is launching a yelp like service for medical treatments. They’ve launched a $50,000 Indiegogo campaign to raise money for their company. Check out that page for more info and a video of what they’re working on.

I love the concept of a Yelp for medical treatments. Certainly we see some of this happening already on websites like PatientsLikeMe and other communities. However, I love that HealClick is trying to create a more specific connection between a patient’s symptoms and treatments with those with similar experiences. In most of the existing patient communities you have to already know that you’re a diabetic or have lupus. From what I understand, the goal of HealClick is to help someone who hasn’t completely identified their health issues connect with other people with similar symptoms.

Plus, they’re focusing on complex immune-related illnesses that have overlapping symptoms and often no clear medical treatment. The ability to find and compare treatment options is very interesting. In these situations the patient is extremely motivated to find every option possible and the doctor just doesn’t have time.

Certainly this could open a pandora’s box where the rogue patient starts thinking they can treat themselves. However, from my experience that isn’t what happens or those patients would react this way regardless of what tools they use. More common is patients become informed of something new and then they consult with their doctor on the options they found.

Turns out, this is the shift that’s happening across all of medicine and not just chronic diseases. The patient is becoming more involved and more informed. Hopefully HealClick can provide some structure to how a patient learns about their health issues.

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January 16, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John 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: and and .

Filed Under: Health Care  Healthcare IT
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Racy Video Promotes New Smartphone Pulse Oximeter

Next week I’ll be enjoying a wave of smartphone medical devices at the International CES conference in Las Vegas. I can already tell from the press releases that a number of companies have made big progress in making these devices great for the consumer.

I did recently get a pitch from a company called Safe Heart USA which is marketing the iOximeter, a smartphone pulse oximeter. I guess in order to stand out (which is necessary at a show like CES) they created this somewhat racy and humorous video called “Fifty Shades of Blue. You can see the video below:

What do you think? Did they go too far or do we need to lighten up and just enjoy a humorous approach to marketing a product as exciting as this?

I have to admit. If I see them at the show, I’ll probably stop by and see the people behind a video like this. Considering the volume of pitches I’ve gotten, it was an interesting way to get my attention.

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January 3, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John 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: and and .

Filed Under: Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
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Top Smart Phone Healthcare Posts

Happy New Year Everyone! Since most people are off today, we took off work as well. However, I thought it would be fun to start the new year with a look back at the most viewed posts on Smart Phone Healthcare in 2013. This doesn’t necessarily mean the post was done in 2013, but it does mean it was viewed the most. I hope you enjoy.

  1. 5 Must-Have Medical Apps for Medical Students
  2. Billionaires Investing in mHealth
  3. Medical Robot Infographic
  4. Wearable Fitness Trackers are a Dime a Dozen, So What’s the Difference?
  5. Tracking Health Infographic
  6. Blood Oxygen Monitor Now Available For iOS Devices
  7. Is the Digital Health Industry About to Fail?
  8. Killer NPI API – BloomAPI
  9. AMA Launches CPT Billing Code iPhone App and 2011 AMA App Challenge
  10. BBC Documentary – Monitor Me

Not surprising that there’s a list, mention of billionaires, infographics, talk of failure, and people giving money away. All very popular topics that people can’t resist reading. I was glad the BloomAPI made it on the list as well since it’s a nice tool. Although, I wonder if the word Killer is what put it over the top.

Hopefully you enjoyed a look at what interests our readers and thanks to all of you for reading.

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January 1, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John 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: and and .

Filed Under: Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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