The mHealth Digital Divide

At the mHealth Summit, Steve Case offered an interesting insight about mHealth doing amazing things with mobile, but hospitals still being worried about updating Windows XP.”

This is one of my key takeaways at the mHealth Summit. There’s a large digital divide between what’s happening in the mobile health world and the reality of most healthcare organizations (Doctors and Hospitals). It would be great if those organizations would partner with these companies trying to innovate in the mobile health space, but unfortunately most are too busy focusing on all the government regulations (ie. ICD-10, meaningful use and ACOs).

What I don’t see is a bridge being built to bridge this divide. Maybe the fact that HIMSS now owns the mHealth Summit event will help. Hopefully the HIMSS audience will finally embrace what’s happening and join in on the conversation. Although, I’m betting that will happen a lot slower than we’d all like.

Anyone who’s tried to sell into healthcare (particularly hospitals) knows what a challenge that can be. Many of the companies developing these mobile health apps don’t come from healthcare. I love the outside influence and knowledge coming into healthcare, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to sell into healthcare. Like most enterprises, the sales process can be brutal.

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December 10, 2013 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  Smart Phones
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Is Meaningful Use Slowing the Growth of mHealth?

mHealth is cool.

There are cool apps, cool gadgets, and a ton of random devices that can do just about anything you can think of, and a few things you would have never thought possible.  There are so many tools out there that could be an asset to people with any number of conditions if only they knew about them, and their hospitals used them.

So why aren’t more people using these amazing devices, and why aren’t hospitals adopting them more rapidly?  If you take a look at EHR/EMR adoption it is not that difficult to see why.

Believe it or not, the very first electronic medical records were created in the 60′s.  Obviously, computers were not widely accessible at the time, so it was not until much later that they became practical on a large-scale, but the point is that the idea existed more than 50 years ago.

Numerous hospitals developed their own versions of digital medical records, but there was really no widespread adoption until meaningful use incentives were offered.  In what is a surprise to no one, doctors in hospitals big and small immediately started to implement EHR/EMRs so that they could get some free money.

Now that is all many doctors are interested in doing to further their practice because they want the money, and also to avoid penalties for not doing so.  There is very little incentive for them to do anything in the area of mHealth so they don’t.

Unfortunately, I think many doctors will never appreciate the value of mHealth until they are forced to do so by the government, or given some large financial incentive.  This lack of implementation by doctors will also directly influence the number of quality offerings from developers.

I realize that doctors are working in an environment where they must be very selective with where they spend their money.  With the rising costs of insurance in all of its many forms, doctors have to do what is best for them and their practice which means that mHealth may just have to be put on the back burner for the time being.

Hopefully, doctors will start to see the value of these technologies all by themselves, but based upon past history I would venture to guess that it will take free money, or the threat of penalties, to make widespread adoption a reality.

What impact, if any, do you think meaningful use is having on mHealth?

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June 11, 2012 I Written By

Filed Under: Gadgets  Health Care  Healthcare IT  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
Tags:EHR/EMR Adoption  Financial Benefit of mHealth  History of EHR    Meaningful Use and mHealth    mHealth Development  

iPads Not Adopted as Quickly by Hospitals as Doctors

iPads are all the rage amongst doctors right now and it is understandable with all they are able to do.  They provide a great amount of convenience for a relatively small financial investment.  For some reason hospitals have not been as quick to adopt this great technology.

According to an article on Fierce Mobile Healthcare, less than one percent of hospitals have a fully functional tablet system.  That seems ridiculously low to me considering how many people use iPads in general.

The article says that one of the major issues is that many of the EMRs currently being used do not have native iPad apps which prevents iPad usage.  It is also not realistic for hospitals to go back and switch EMRs just to be able to use the iPad, no matter how useful they may be.

What this says to me is that many hospitals moved a little too quickly to adopt an EMR without considering all of their options.  While it makes little sense to make such an important decision so quickly, I can also see why it may have happened.  With all of the money that meaningful use offers it is totally understandable that hospitals would move quickly to get that money.

I know it is shocking that a government program would induce rapid decision making that leads to undesirable consequences, but that may be exactly what happened here.

Don’t get me wrong, I think EMRs and meaningful use are great, and definitely the path that healthcare needs to go, but forcing hospitals to rush into such an important decision may end up costing them more in the long run.  Not having iPads is by no means the end of the world, and it shouldn’t be the measure of success, but it is a tool that may not be used to its full potential because of the current situation.

 

 

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January 3, 2012 I Written By

Filed Under: Apple  Health Care  iPad  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Tablets
Tags:Apple iPad  Fierce Mobile Healthcare  iPad EMR app    Native iPad Apps  Tablet Use in Hospitals  Wrong EMR