Mobile Solutions, From Start to Finish

Patients are increasingly using mHealth technologies to track their daily health activities. However, they are still skeptical to share their data with their doctors – unless they are asked to.

A new mobile health survey from Mobiquity found that while 70 percent of consumers use mHealth tools, only 40 percent have shared the data from these tools with their doctors.  Privacy concerns and questions about data relevance are patient’s prime concerns. 

Sixty percent of patients surveyed have not shared their data with their doctor and of that percentage, 73 percent never even thought to inform their doctor on their mHealth use. Eleven percent believe their doctor won’t be interested in their findings. 

The majority of mHealth usage comes from patients managing fitness and dietary goals. Only five percent of those surveyed use this technology to manage their medications and only two percent contact their professionals.  One of the biggest takeaways from the survey is that a third of participants would be more likely to engage if mHealth was encouraged by their doctor. 

Are you participating in mHealth? What motivates you? 

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The uncovering of the Heartbleed bug, a security vulnerability that has potentially affected millions of Internet users, has caused much fear and confusion in the last week. Now that things seemed to have subsided after the initial media attention, what should you as an Internet user do to ensure protection?

1. Be aware of any operating system patches for your computer. Regardless of if you are a PC or Mac user, make sure to promptly check and install any suggested updates.
2. There is a potential risk that passwords have been retrieved on compromised websites. This means that your passwords may be known. If you use the same passwords for multiple sites, there is the possibility of access on non-affected sites. Make sure to change your passwords if you are concerned.
3. Change your important passwords just in case (bank accounts, credit cards, email logins). Make sure to use strong passwords that are different for each site. 

Image from heartbleed.com

A new survey from IT staffing provider Robert Half Technology surveyed CIOs across multiple industries and found that those in the healthcare services sector were the most likely to have zero mobile technology strategy.

The survey was conducted via 2,300 phone interviews with CIOs from a random sampling of companies in 23 major cities with 100 or more employees. 

The lack of strategy results from compliance issues. John Reed, senior executive of Robert Half Technology, explained this in a written statement published by Health Data Management, saying "[c]ompliance issues have made it difficult for the healthcare industry to move as quickly as other sectors, but as consumer demand for mobile health information grows, formal mobile strategies are a necessary next step."

And demand is expected to grow. As we reported in an earlier post, mHealth is expected to grow to $49 billion by the year 2020. 

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