The #mHealth Challenge: Beyond the App

Today was the first day of the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This afternoon, I attended a session titled, "The mHealth Challenge: Beyond the App." The speaker was Sandeep Shah, CEO & CIO of Skyscape. He spoke about the growing world of medical apps for smartphones. However, the app is not enough. So, how do we overcome this problem? He reviewed a few case studies where they found innovative ways to leverage a smartphone in the clinical setting.

For instance, suppose you're dealing with hypertension. Are physicians applying the latest clinical evidence? Do they know what types of labs they can order?  Looking at the nursing clinical pathway, we see there are multiple ways to integrate the mobile ecosystem on a smartphone.

Tim Bristol, PhD, RN, CNE, spoke about ways nursing students in Haiti were using smartphones to learn. Mobile devices are improving nursing education both in the United States and in developing countries like Haiti. Skyscape has sent 20 devices to the nursing students in Haiti where they now have access to medical content. This was a part of the "Handhelds for Haiti" project with the Haiti Nursing Foundation. 

I want to thank Epocrates for sponsoring these blog posts from the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. Epocrates, Inc. develops clinical information and decision support tools that enable healthcare professionals to find answers more quickly and confidently at the point of care.