The mHealth Summit

The 2012 mHealth Summit was held on Monday and among the presentations were the results of the HIMSS 2012 Mobile Technology Survey. The survey, which was co-sponsored by HIMSS and Qualcomm Life, shows that mobile technology is changing the face of healthcare.

The main goals of the survey were to examine how mHealth technology use has grown over the last year and how federal regulations have impacted the development of mobile health policies, according to Jennifer Horowitz, senior director of research for HIMSS Analytics, and Anthony Shimkin, senior director of marketing for Qualcomm Life.

The survey collected data from healthcare executives in October and November of 2012. Some of the questions were quite specific in order to gauge exactly what kind of technology healthcare providers are using and what policies are being developed. Interestingly, 95 percent of those surveyed said they have policies in place for laptop use, 79 percent for smartphone use and 57 percent for tablets.

The survey revealed that 10 percent of the population now receives care via ACOs and this relies heavily on the implementation of mobile technology. In addition, 82 percent of participants in the survey reported that access to personal health information is a top benefit to mHealth technology.

“The key lesson is that these technologies are beginning to take hold,” Shimkin said.

The full survey is available on the mHIMSS website at www.mhimss.org.

Source: healthcareitnews.com