I was really intrigued by this article from Sam Stern titled “Coming Next: Mandated Mobile and Digital Medical Devices for Chronic Conditions.” In it he discusses a bit of Obamacare and then looks across the pond for what he believes will be the future for healthcare in the US. He uses this quote from NHS England as an illustration:
Everyone with a long-term condition or disability must have a digital personalised care plan accessible online or via a mobile phone app by 2015.”
It’s a strong point that’s worthy of consideration. As the government starts paying for more and more healthcare (no doubt they’re already a large payer of healthcare), will they start to mandate mobile health devices so they have more data on the care they’re providing?
I believe the answer to this question is yes. In fact, they’ve always wanted this data, but mobile health and a new wave of consumer sensors are finally going to be able to deliver the data.
Coming from the perspective of someone from mobile health, this is a really great development. While it will take a little while for all of this to happen, you can be sure that those mobile health companies that can supply the data are going to be richly rewarded.
As a consumer, I’m a little torn on if I like it or not. When I think about this, I’m reminded of the car insurance companies putting a little monitor on my car’s computer. A part of me loves this, because then they could possibly give me lower rates when they see I don’t drive as much and that I am a safe driver. Although, the big brother aspects of it are also a little disconcerting. When someone can make money from that data they will. I’m not sure exactly how, but you can be certain it will happen.
I’m all for using mobile health to improve the health care I receive. I just think we have to be careful how and when we use it. Plus, we have to make sure we have proper privacy regulations on that data. Otherwise, we could find ourselves with a lot of unintended consequences.
John – I appreciate your perspective and can understand your privacy concerns. There will certainly be abuses, but in my mind this is an opportunity too big to miss.
It makes good sense to have personalised care plans for patients with chronic disease, and this may just be the ‘killer app’ for health in the future. The plan shod be available via a cloud service, and mobile apps will be one access method. It is critical however that the information can be accessed and edited from the various clinical systems in use as they will be the primary users of the data.