The Promise of Mobile Health Technology: Where’s the Revolution?

The widespread adoption of smartphones has created a significant opportunity to impact health behaviors for the better with the adoption of mobile health technologies targeted to individual patients.  Much has been made of the potential of mobile health apps to revolutionize modern health care. Is it working?

The benefits of mobile health interventions

A recent meta-analysis of studies of mobile health interventions used with pediatric patients, performed by researchers from the University of Florida and the University of Kansas, suggests mobile health programs can promote healthy behaviors. Their research, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that the interventions can improve children’s health outcomes.¹

Other trials of mobile health applications have demonstrated that text messaging interventions appeared to help increase adherence to antiretroviral therapy and increased smoking cessation in some settings.²

Mental health applications

In the realm of mental health treatment, a recent trial reported in the Journal of Medical Internet Research suggests that mobile apps can be useful for people experiencing moderate levels of depression.³

This research joins previous findings that mobile health technology can produce clinically relevant improvements in health outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. Mobile health interventions provide a promising strategy to enable better self-management of diabetes.

Communication channels

Text message reminders as well as interventions through other communication channels such as email or push notifications can help guide patients in taking health and wellness actions at important times. A mobile health technology solution such as the RxEOB®MercuryMessaging™ platform can provide these reminders. Mercury uses back-end analytics to automatically initiate relevant communications based on the status of an individual patient.

RxEOB provides mobile health solutions that can help health care organizations better communicate with members. Our platforms and application can help drive better patient health care outcomes. In addition, they can be used to provide health plan members with access to pharmacy cost savings and better plan utilization. For more information, visit www.rxeob.com, or call 804-643-1540.

¹Fedele, David A., et al. “Mobile Health Interventions for Improving Health Outcomes in Youth: A Meta-analysis.” JAMA Pediatrics 171.5 (2017): 461-469

²Free, Caroline, et al. “The Effectiveness of Mobile-health Technology-based Health Behaviour Change or Disease Management Interventions for Health Care Consumers: A Systematic Review.” PLoS Medicine 10.1 (2013): e1001362.

³Arean, Patricia A., et al. “The Use and Effectiveness of Mobile Apps for Depression: Results from a Fully Remote Clinical Trial.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 18.12 (2016).