mHealth: Empowering the Patient

Deloitte recently posted an infographic about the benefits (and the risks) of mHealth.  To summarize, the best thing about mHealth (or mobile health) is that it truly empowers the patient.

By using an app on a smartphone or tablet, it will be easier for individuals to monitor and manage health issues such as blood sugar or breathing function.  As the use of smart technology increases and the price of these devices decrease, use of these mHealth apps will continue to rise.

This is not to say that mHealth is without risk.  As this technology is new, reliability of these diagnoses may not be as accurate and reliable.  There is a risk of user error in this self-diagnosis.

In conclusion, mHealth is a rapidly growing field.  Any technology that helps empower the patient will help shift from curative medicine to preventative medicine.  This shift will hopefully lead to better health outcomes meaning a healthier populace and decreased healthcare expenditures.

Click image on right to view the entire infographic.

Failing Faster in Healthcare

"Fail Fast, Fail Often" is a mantra often used in technology and in start ups.  The thought is by achieving "calculated" failures, there is much to be learned and if this learning is optimized, it can lead to increased efficiency and breakthrough results.

In the past, healthcare has lagged in innovation.  Oftentimes building large, bulky, proprietary systems, it was more "Fail Slow, Fail Infrequently".  This has lead to some healthcare providers with outdated business processes and technology.

Price Waterhouse writes a great article on this topic and the key takeaway is that innovation must be structured.  Larger, more established companies will need to continue to innovate to compete with new entrants in the healthcare market.  By implementing this "Fail Fast, Fail Often" mantra in a structured environment, it will allow for increased efficiency when innovating.