Last month at the Health 2.0 meets Ix conference here in Boston, we covered The Pew Internet & American Life Project’s health research and digital strategy head Susannah Fox’s presentation on the opportunity that mobile devices present for engaging different populations in managing their own care. At the time, Fox noted that despite the opportunity mobile presents, there are pockets of people who lack access to basic technology, lack the skills to participate, lack the interest to try something new, or lack the feeling they are welcomed to participate.
The team behind the Heath 2.0 conference just posted video interviews from some of the event’s speakers, including Fox. In this clip, Fox expands on her contention that the mobile platform could help health service providers reach a more diverse population.
“We are seeing a deepening of the online experience with that group that is motivated by mobility,” Fox told the interviewer. “It turns out that mobility is actually changing people once again, as we saw with broadband. We are also continuing to see greater diversity in terms of race and ethnicity. If you want to reach a population that, for example, looks more like America, then go to a mobile application, because there are lots of people who don’t have a desktop computer but who have a really fantastic phone.”
“It could be a trap though, what I saw in looking at the mobile data and looking at the health data, we are still finding that we do not have full participation,” Fox said. “The technology is there, but there is a lack — maybe of interest — there’s maybe a lack of confidence — there’s a lack of a sense of being welcome in the space. Mobile is an opportunity to be a game changer, but only if everyone gets in the game.”
Fox makes a number of good points in the video, but I think her list of reasons for why people aren’t yet using wireless health services is missing the most important one: Before we can have a lack of interest or lack of confidence in mHealth, before we can feel unwelcomed, we need to know it exists. Wireless health service providers or mobile application developers cannot bank their entire marketing strategy on being featured in an Apple iPhone commercial.
Mobile health application developers and their partners need to let patients know that the technology is here, that the technology works (be sure to prove it) and that the mobile phone does have the power to become a game changer.
First, though, let them know the game is on.
The video interview of Pew’s Susannah Fox, conducted on the sidelines of the Health 2.0, is after the jump.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:27 am
Your closing observation is spot on. The mobile platform is indeed capable of supporting a wide array of innovative devices and services each of which can lead to significant change in behaviors, at the personal and corporate levels.
The global mobile industry has begun to publicize that the “new game” is on, not just in health care but also in traditionally non-mobile sectors such as clean energy, transport infrastructure and utilities. More can be found, including opportunities to participate, at http://www.gsmworld.com/embeddedmobile.
[Disclosure - I was involved in the initial market assessment work to define the market development strategy]
June 1st, 2009 at 8:31 am
Thanks so much for bringing up the “supply” side of mHealth, since you’re right that I focus on the “demand” or consumer side. Please note that my comments about mobile usage are primarily based on my colleague John Horrigan’s report, “The Mobile Difference.” That report should be required reading for anyone interested in mHealth.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the report I’m releasing next week, “The Social Life of Health Information.” I hope to use Pew Internet Project survey data to benchmark the nascent field of Health 2.0/participatory medicine and provide as true a picture as possible of uptake so far, even when pilot projects are more common than established programs. I look forward to hearing your interpretation of it alongside mine! It will be posted at http://www.pewinternet.org.
June 1st, 2009 at 9:11 am
Hi Susannah — Looking forward to both reports. We’ll be sure to write them up and let everyone know they are mHealth-related!