At times, text messages seem to be the uncelebrated workhorse of mobile health, especially when you compare SMS to health apps in terms of the amount of attention each gets.
While the potential for smartphone apps is still great, adoption across all mobile phone users in the US for apps has remained flat at about 10 percent for the past three years. Once these apps find tighter integration with...
One out of every three adults in the US will buy a digital health product of some kind in the next year, Gary Shapiro, the CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), said -- citing data from an upcoming CEA survey -- during his luncheon keynote at HIMSS' mHealth Summit this week. With the exception of that prediction, Shapiro largely steered clear of the consumer health conversation and...
Fitlinxx Actiped clip-on activity monitors
Boston-based Partners HealthCare and its Center for Connected Health recently announced plans to expand its connected fitness program, Partners Step It Up, to six Boston public schools this years. The healthcare system made the announcement at a visit to one of the schools with US HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The expansion builds on a pilot launch...
This week results from a study conducted in 2008 found their way into a medical journal: Virtual coaches work. According to the study, conducted by researchers at the Center for Connected Health, Northeastern University, and Massachusetts General Hospital overweight people wearing wireless pedometers upped their average activity levels by a significant amount if they checked in with a virtual...
A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that using a "virtual coach" helped overweight or obese people increase their activity levels. Researchers at Boston-based Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, and Massachusetts General Hospital found that virtual coaches increased step counts by a significant amount. Participants in the study wore...
