Mobile health (mHealth) is a branch of the digital health market that specifically uses mobile technologies. Data from mHealth can inform, assess, anticipate, and aid in interventions while monitoring and coordinating patient health status and care. The vast majority of American adults own cell phones, and innovators in mHealth have been developing platform-agnostic, validated instruments for patientcentric realtime mobile data capture. With high technology access in place and mHealth tools emerging, the potential exists to revolutionize the way health services are delivered and experienced. To date, mHealth applications and devices have been used within the areas of epidemiology, general public health, and clinical trials. As mHealth can collect and analyze multifaceted data in near real time, these technologies may dramatically alter the speed with which evidence-based practice can be customized toward achieving the triple aim of high-quality care, improved out-comes, and lower costs. Challenges to achieving this revolution are seen in the complexities of integrating new technologies into the existing health service record systems, the needs of multiple and diverse healthcare stakeholders, and the research burden of producing high-quality evidence to demonstrate the clinical and economic outcomes enabled by mHealth.

Source: www.ajmc.com