Late last year MobiHealthNews interviewed mHealth analyst Jody Ranck who pointed out that there are very few mobile health apps and services available for Spanish speakers in the US -- the exceptions being Text4Baby and TuDiabetes. This week, Miguel Tirado, PhD, Professor of Health and Human services at California State University penned a must-read analysis of mobile health services for Latinos, African Americans and other "linguistically and culturally diverse" populations in the US.

Tirado concludes that there are four key steps necessary to help these populations better take advantage of mobile health services:

"Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement policies should be amended to permit health providers to bill for mobile-technology-enabled synchronous and asynchronous communication with their patients.

"The Federal Communication Commission should establish a pricing model for high-volume users of broadband cellular service to subsidize access to broadband-supported health applications by chronically ill lower-income patients unable to afford such services.

"The Department of Health and Human Services should introduce standards to protect confidentiality involving transmission via cell phones and should amplify the CLAS guidelines to ensure culturally and linguistically appropriate mobile-phone-supported communication between providers, health plans, and their patients.

"The Food and Drug Administration should consider questions of wide public accessibility to mobile health technology innovations based on costs and ease of adoption before certifying them as 'medical devices.'"

Be sure to read Tirado's entire article over at AHIMA's Perspectives site