Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 07/19/11 by Mobile Future Team
Mobile devices are connecting health workers in developing countries to vital information on new treatment procedures and offer these workers a way to take exams, browse medical publications and discuss diagnosis from remote areas.
As reported in The East African,
“Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs has called the mobile phone “the single most transformative technology for development.”
Also, cutting-edge mHealth technology is going intergalactic as the International Space Station will be home to a new mobile cardiovascular ultrasound system that will monitor astronaut’s health.
To read more, click here.
Posted: 06/07/11
Both doctors and patients are pleased with the greater mobility wireless technologies provide to clinicians. According to a recent CIO article, Texas Health Resources- a healthcare provider with numerous hospitals- found that about 40% of doctors own an iPad or other tablet and that these devices allow doctors to leave their desktop computers and spend more time with patients. While Texas Health has plans to release an app that will allow clinicians to view EKG’s on smartphones and tablets later this month, a new app that helps determine the likelihood of someone suffering from a concussion has already gained attention from those in the head-trauma field.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 01/06/11 by Mobile Future Team
A report today from market research firm Kalorama Information concludes that in 2010, a majority of U.S. physicians used a PDA or smartphone for their work, up from 35-40 percent in 2008.
That report complements a second study, issued last week, projecting that use of mobile health (or m-health) apps will triple by 2012. That study, titled “Health Check: Key Players in Healthcare,” was based on a public survey showing that 70 percent of respondents want access to m-health apps, even if they have to pay for it.
Meanwhile yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a lengthy article about the vibrancy of the m-Health app market. Reporter Anya Martin writes, “A growing number of free or cheap smartphone apps aim to help caregivers keep track of medication dosages, nutritional requirements and other daily health-care needs.” She cites one recent study showing that mobile users can choose from more than 8,700 health-related apps.
The reason for all this activity is straightforward: Mobile healthcare offers the promise of dramatically expanding healthcare coverage for those with debilitating diseases while doing so more efficiently. Patients who once had to travel to a doctor’s office for routine tests can now have them done at home, with the results automatically relayed to their provider.
Expanded coverage. Cost savings. That’s the reality of m-Health.
Posted: 11/12/10 by Mobile Future Team
Taking place earlier this week, the 2010 mHealth Summit emphasized the important role technology plays in the healthcare field. Keynotes, breakout sessions and exhibit demonstrations all demonstrated how the marriage of technology and medicine acts as a gateway to better quality of care services and innovations that facilitate healthcare for underserved populations. Bill Gates, one of the keynote speakers at the Summit, called for new efficient innovations to move mHealth forward.
Some of the new technologies and applications discussed at the Summit include GlowCaps from Vitality, a pill bottle that calls your phone as a reminder to take medication and orders refills from the pharmacy, and iTriage- a symptom to provider pathway app that integrates your personal health record, reports live ER wait times, and allows you to view multiple family members health info as well as your own health plan info. Click here to read more coverage of the Summit.
Posted: 11/10/10 by Mobile Future Team
This Veteran’s Day, Mobile Future joins the rest of the country in saluting the men and women throughout history who have fought to protect America’s freedoms. At home and abroad, these dedicated service members continue to demonstrate the highest levels of commitment to their fellow citizens and the global community, and as Americans we could not be more thankful for their sacrifices.
With that, we’re proud to report that mobile innovation has in turn contributed to a greater quality of life among active and retired service members, from technologies that keep vet’s healthy to applications that connect service members to loved ones to wireless initiatives aimed at harnessing the power of mobile to keep our troops safe around the world.
mHealth
Advances in mHealth technologies provide immediate benefits to veterans no matter their physical location. To date, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates the largest telehealth program in the world, with a report out in this month’s Medical Care citing the organization’s widespread usage of information technology as one reason it continues to out-perform the private sector in patient care processes. But with an estimated 3 million veterans living in rural areas, in-house services are not always an option for necessary care. Telehealth and mHealth technologies allow health care professionals to download important data—like vital signs and physiological functions---onto PDAs and smartphones, allowing for remote monitoring of illness and chronic disease.
In addition, specific apps-- like the T2 Mood Tracker, developed by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, the Hope for One PTSD app, and DOD’s iBreathe set to debut in January 2011-- let service members and veterans use their smartphones to track their emotional health after deployments, monitor trends and behavioral shifts elicited from therapy, medication, and environmental changes, and provide valuable resources for families of those suffering from PTSD.
Connectivity
Mobile technology is especially critical to help deployed service members stay in touch with home no matter where the call of duty takes them. Great applications like Jackson Fish Market’s A Story Before Bed let service members record videos of themselves reading stories that can be accessed anytime through an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch application.
Quality of Life
Mobile applications continue to improve quality of life for veterans and active duty service members around the globe. In July, army.mil profiled the best iPhone apps for a military lifestyle, including US Army News and Information, Skype, BrainWave, USAA banking, and much more. And in August, AmVets released the first app of its kind, aimed at bringing its mission to assist veterans and promote veterans issues into the wireless space.
In addition, AnMarc Travel Technology’s MilitaryToGo application allows service members to use their smartphones to chat live with representatives to make discounted travel reservations and in-flight bookings. And successful competitions like Apps 4 the Army demonstrate developers’ dedication to harnessing the power of mobile to connect our troops around the world.
Philanthropic Efforts
Players across the wireless ecosystem remain committed to raising awareness surrounding veteran’s issues and finding ways to better serve those who have served our country. Initiatives like Cell Phones for Soldiers allow phone users to donate devices they no longer use and turn them into minutes for troops stationed overseas.
We are extremely proud and grateful for our veterans and active duty troops. Please join us in thanking them for their service not just today, but all year long.
Posted: 09/08/10 by Mobile Future Team
In the United States, the treatment of chronic disease accounts for more than 70 percent ($1.7 trillion) of the country's $2.4 trillion in total healthcare spending. But continued proliferation and adoption of mHealth technologies can help people stay on top of their healthcare regimen and alert a specialist in case of a problem.
That’s the conclusion from a new report released by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. The report cites some interesting examples:
• Researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Colorado discovered that 58 percent of hypertension patients using mPHRs (personal health records embedded in mobile communication devices) lowered their blood pressure to healthy levels within six months, compared to 38 percent receiving conventional treatment.
• At the Cleveland Clinic, diabetic and hypertensive patients who used smartphones to transmit vital signs reduced their number of doctor’s office visits as compared to patients who did not track readings.
• Austrian investigators found that congestive heart failure (CHF) patients, who typically require extensive hospitalization, had fewer and shorter hospital stays when they used a wireless system to transmit vitals, medication information and health status to their physicians.
The potential for wireless to expand cost-effective healthcare solutions has been a favorite topic of our’s for years (See here and here.) Moreover, as The New York Times reported nearly two years ago in an article on seniors’ attempts to avoid nursing homes, the cost of a wireless monitoring system is about $100 a month, compared to a nursing home, where the costs to taxpayers can exceed $200 a day.
Posted: 06/14/10
It’s beginning to seem like no feat is too large for the wonderful world of wireless. So in the future, don’t be surprised when the latest wireless advancement isn’t merely something you can text or tweet, but something you can… wear?
Sure enough, developers have introduced prototypes for a new ‘smart’ clothing, which use wireless biosensors to measure a wearer’s physiological conditions throughout the day. The information is sent to the user’s smartphone or PDA that maps the findings in an emotional database, and in turn responds with a pre-determined message depending on the wearer’s emotional state.
The inspirational sayings can come in the form of text messages scrolling across the garment’s sleeve, via video streaming across the corresponding handheld device, or as sound clips spoken by loved ones that come from speakers embedded in the clothing.
The technology is still in its nascent stages, but the potential positive ramifications it could have across varying industries—including its medicinal uses—are already being explored.
So while it may be a while before Mobile Future shows at Bryant Park, we’re certainly not surprised that wireless may soon be wearable (and no… we’re not talking something like this).
Posted: 05/25/10 by Mobile Future Team
If you didn’t catch 60 Minutes on Sunday night, you missed an amazing segment on how mobile apps will revolutionize our lives. The show profiled Marty Cooper, grandfather of the cell phone, who at age 81 is still among the top futurists of our mobile future.
Take mobile technology and healthcare. As Cooper told Morley Safer:
“Healthcare is going to be revolutionized because you will have sensors at various points on your body measuring different things. And a computer somewhere or maybe a doctor will be examining you all the time…. If you could measure [vital signs] all the time, you could predict heart failures. You could predict diabetes. And you could prevent all these things.”
In one sense, the mobile healthcare revolution has already started. See here and here as examples. But as everyone from Marty Cooper on down would agree, mobile technology has only started to scratch the healthcare surface.
For two-minute version of the 60 Minutes show on YouTube, click here. For the complete 60 Minutes interview, click here.
Posted: 05/18/10 by Jonathan Spalter
"High speed Internet empowers people with disabilities to become more independent. [It] can remove barriers that keep people with disabilities from participating in everyday activities such as employment, education, civic responsibilities and social connection."
From a joint statement by: The American Association of People with Disabilities and The Communications Workers of America
For America's 54 million people with disabilities, two important events happen this summer. First, there's Memorial Day, when disabled veterans will proudly lead ceremonies and officials will emphasize the need to help those injured in conflict.
Second, July 26th is the 20th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA was a long time in coming and is probably the single most empowering law during the past generation. But while the ADA has been instrumental in providing legal help for Americans with disabilities, something else is doing an important job in improving basic living standards.
It's your mobile phone.
That's the conclusion of a new research paper that Mobile Future issued today. For all the talk about texting, streaming video, gaming and other apps, one of the most heartening mobile developments involve affordable, life-changing improvements for those with disabilities. The FCC also recognizes this development and hosted a workshop to explore ways in which new technologies can offer opportunities to meet the communications access needs of people with disabilities.
Take the hearing impaired. In 2006, according to the CDC, 37 million adults in the United States had trouble hearing (ranging from a little trouble to being deaf). That's an increase of more than five million since 2000.
As described in Mobile Future's paper, a new wireless system developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute offers those with hearing difficulties the ability to caption events in real-time. The device translates spoken words into text and displays it on a screen.
Meanwhile, according to Scientific American, researchers at the University of Washington (Seattle) are developing software that lets mobile phone users communicate through sign language and real-time video instead of being limited to text messaging.
But what about those who can't see? Some of the same technology that lets you save money while shopping is also turning the phone into an electronic seeing-eye companion.
As we discovered, mobile apps can use smartphone cameras to scan labels and announce the contents of grocery items, their nutrition labels, and even pill bottles. When merged with GPS technology, these apps can assist the visually impaired by giving them step-by-step directions through their smartphone.
Know someone with a speaking disability? An estimated 6 to 8 million Americans have this challenge. Many, if not most, can now take advantage of low- or no-cost communications apps on their cell phone. There's voice output software that conveys typed messages; downloadable text-to-speech software can be an effective, less-costly alternative to speech devices covered by private insurance and Medicare.
Also, some experts say that children with speech impairments often prefer using "mainstream" technology which is less stigmatizing.
Mobile Future's research paper is meant to be both an assessment and a celebration of the key innovations that are helping those with disabilities. It is also a "look-ahead" at the next phase wireless technologies in the pipeline which promise even more transformational impacts for the one in five Americans who live with disabilities.
This column was originally posted on Huffington Post on May 13, 2010.
Posted: 04/01/10 by Mobile Future Team
At CTIA Wireless 2010 last week, the newest and coolest mobile products and services were on display. There were lots of interesting ones, including many amazing mHealth applications.
Here’s a look at some innovative apps:
PillPhone
A mobile application that helps consumers better manage their medication.
LookTel
An application that helps the visually impaired recognize objects.
MedApps
A mobile outpatient monitoring solution that proactively alerts doctors and nurses to potential health problems.
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Tags: Applications, Consumer Awareness, Innovation, Mobile Health, Mobile Healthcare, News, Wireless Devices, Wireless Innovation, mHealth