The emerging field of mobile health

Abstract

The surge in computing power and mobile connectivity have fashioned a foundation for mobile health (mHealth) technologies that can transform the mode and quality of clinical research and health care on a global scale. Unimpeded by geographical boundaries, smartphone-linked wearable sensors, point-of-need diagnostic devices, and medical-grade imaging, all built around real-time data streams and supported by automated clinical decision-support tools, will enable care and enhance our understanding of physiological variability. However, the path to mHealth incorporation into clinical care is fraught with challenges. We currently lack high-quality evidence that supports the adoption of many new technologies and have financial, regulatory, and security hurdles to overcome. Fortunately, sweeping efforts are under way to establish the true capabilities and value of the evolving mHealth field.

Fig. 1

Sensing a shift in health care. Shown are bodywide measurements by mHealth technologies that are available to health care providers and patients to aid in the tracking, diagnosis, or management of various physiological processes and disease conditions. (Inset) Watching over one’s health. Multiple developers have reported that the listed physiological parameters are measurable with sensors in a wrist-worn device. BP, blood pressure; Hb, hemoglobin; STDs, sexually transmitted diseases.

Fig. 2. mHealth taking center stage

Measures are funding and number of related publications. Shown are the annual total funding for patient-facing mHealth companies and the annual number of related publications [identified with Web of Science (WoS) using search terms “telemedicine” and “mhealth*” and “digital health” and “digital medicine”]. Funding data provided by B. Dolan and A. Pai of MobiHealthNews.