The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 1 (Feb 2014) | Page 35

EPHA Briefing on Mobile Health
Home monitoring can also greatly
improve the lives of the frail and
elderly. Sensors connected to home
alert systems help prevent incidents, such as falls, turn into lifethreatening events. [21] Smart systems thus provide reassurance that
help is only minutes away.
Educational and Public Health
Use
A number of educational tools
strive to educate patients and caregivers about the conditions they
are dealing with, and they provide
relevant information and links to
networks where expertise and anxieties can be shared. Other tools
build up user skills for navigating
common eHealth functions.
For health professionals and trainees, there are training modules for
specific conditions, purposes (e.g.
echocardiographies) and learning
objectives (e.g. the extensive ‘Anatomy on the Go’ app [22]), as well as
for building up skills for working
with vulnerable groups.
A number of mHealth solutions,
in particular texting via SMS, are
more generally useful raising awareness of prevention and health promotion. In the developing world, a
number of public health campaigns
have been successfully carried out
to combat HIV/AIDS infections,
outbreaks of communicable diseases and epidemics, and for family planning, allowing recipients to
make informed choices and supporting disease management.
Promotion of Health and Wellbeing
Given its multifunction, mHealth

can be a tool for promoting health
and well-being. Its extensive range
of gadgets is seductive for patientconsumers as it takes health out of
the scientific sphere into the realm
of day-to-day activities and social
ties, thereby allowing individuals to explore both conventional
and emerging health methods, e.g.
complementary and alternative
medicine (CAM). Through routine deployment, mHealth can also
contribute to better prevention and
healthy behaviours.
It is, however, imperative to recognise the limitations of technology:
data can be erroneous, tools used
incorrectly, and results may depend
on performing tasks in the right sequence at the right time. Moreover,
the negative impacts of excessive
ICT use on health outcomes (both
physical and psychological) must
not be underestimated.
Gaming
ICT-enabled games are ubiquitous
as people pass time with their mobile phones 24/7, e.g. in waiting
rooms, on public transport, during
lunch break, even in bed. Gamification describes the application of
game elements and digital game
design techniques to non-game
problems such as health.
While online marketing and inappropriate information to patients
(e.g., by unauthorised vendors of
medicines) represent a growing
concern, especially for individuals unable to distinguish between
‘good’ and ‘bad’ sources of health
information, education-oriented
health games are arguably a fun
way for individuals to become
more conscious of their health.

Seen in this way, ICT has the potential to improve quality of life
[23], especially since mobile games
are played by people of all ages and
across social groups. Examples are
action games for youth with dyslexia, games offering pain relief
via ‘information overload’ (e.g., for
patients with permanent pain due
to severe burns, etc.), but also Wii
sports for people suffering from
obesity. [24]
There are also interesting solutions
for health professionals, e.g. simulations and interactive learning for
physicians controlling ‘virtual patients’. It has even been suggested
that playing video games can help
develop surgeons’ manual dexterity. [25]
Cost Reduction vs. Evidence
The Boston Consulting Group reported that mHealth can reduce the
cost of health services (amongst
the old age group) by about 25%,
and of data collection by 24%. [26]
Patient care can be improved by
capturing information for providers and allowing them to rapidly
analyse large amounts of information to better understand a perso