A new report from mHealth Alliance and Vital Wave explores the available options and opportunities for sustainable financial models in mHealth.

Identifying the lack of viable financial models for the mobile health industry, the partners behind the new report say their aim is to help answer the questions: “Who pays for mHealth, and at which stage is their investment most needed and appropriate?”

According details contained in a press release issued Friday, the report uses a value chain analysis framework to evaluate five financial models for mHealth.

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The Journal of Medical Internet Research is reporting the findings of a recent Norwegian study which aims to show how smartphones can help women suffering from chronic pain.

A total of 140 women with chronic widespread pain participated in the study, which sought to learn if Internet-based interventions using cognitive behavioral approaches could be effective in promoting self-management of chronic pain conditions.

Web-based programs delivered via smartphones are increasingly used to support the self-management of various health disorders, but research on smartphone interventions for persons with chronic pain is limited.

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Likening DNA data to the importance of keeping secure one’s financial data and other personal identification information, researchers at the University of California at Irvine say smartphone apps can and should be trusted to safeguard and access DNA information.

To that end, the group has engineered a new smartphone app capable of securely storing critical DNA info on one’s mobile device. It’s a development some claim could advance healthcare technology and treatment expedience to a significant degree.

“Imagine you’re on a first date,” says Gene Tsudik, UC Irvine professor of computer science, demonstrating the new app’s potential. “You and the other person could hold up your phones, exchange tiny amounts of encrypted information and be able to determine how much common ancestry you have. Or you might be able to estimate the odds of your future children being born with something like Down syndrome.”
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In recent weeks, ample media coverage has been directed toward the countless ways in which mHealth services, tools, and resources can be used to benefit the young as well as the aging.

Although news in the mHealth space generally revolves around advancements in medical care for the elderly, ill, and immobile, the findings of a new University of Arizona study chronicled in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior point to the benefits of mobile technology in improving the health and wellness of young mobile device users.

The stated objective of the study was to develop and test messages and a mobile phone delivery protocol designed to influence the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of adolescents.

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It what amounts to another clear indication of mHealth’s growing adoption and increasing popularity with mobile consumers, a new survey shows that 84 percent of dLife mobile application users believe a mobile device “improves their ability to manage their diabetes.”

With mobile monitoring devices now being used to help treat millions of patients around the world, the survey revealed that the utilization of mobile devices “plays a key role in encouraging diabetes self-management and supporting comprehensive health improvements.”

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Every year in the United States, thousands of Americans are put into harm’s way simply by virtue of not taking their prescribed medication at the appointed time or by taking accidental double-doses.

With more and more health-related technologies now in place to help curb this regrettable phenomenon, we are starting to see clear and incontrovertible evidence of mHealth’s positive impact on medication adherence rates.

MediSafe Project has announced that its users have a reported medication adherence rate of 81%.

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According to the recently published findings of a survey spearheaded by CDW, tablet computers and related mobile technologies are making lives easier for medical professionals across the board.

152 healthcare providers who tap their tablets to help perform clinical work say that their tablets (mostly iPads and Kindle Fire devices) make them happier and more productive at work.

Although the survey also explored tablet usage among media and large business respondents, higher education respondents, and state and local government respondents, the feedback from healthcare industry workers is being discussed most today, largely in response to the optimism it lends to the growth of the mHealth ecosystem.

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