Mobile Health Technology Accelerating Data Analysis Adoption

By CIOReview | Wednesday, May 16, 2018

The widespread adoption of mobile health technology has put mobile devices (laptop, smartphone, tablet, wearables, health monitoring devices) in the hands of healthcare providers and patients for superior correspondence and access to information, using the internet. As a result, the amount of data generated for analysis is tremendous.

The health and fitness industry's health care delivery, dissemination of information, and consumerism is evolving. The use of fitness and wellness mobile applications is rising owing to their pervasive availability. Also, mobile health technology presents before the healthcare provider comprehensive information about the patient beyond the presenting complaints facilitating better healthcare support and preventative strategies to promote good health and well-being. Research by the Pew Research Center shows the significant and satisfactory use of mobile devices for tracking variables such as diet, weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and exercise regimes. Apple's HealthKit and Google Fit are expected to further popularize the use of mobile health technology (as stated by Stanford Medicine).

However, according to the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the differential access of wearable devices and telehealth platforms may impede efficient data analysis. Also, the governance and ethics of rising cloud-based health data is under question. But the number of health apps will continue growing primarily due to their use in clinical and care-enhancing tools, personal fitness and well-being, and clinical research.

Yes, mobile health technology can generate new insights into health and disease management with biomedical research and data analysis, and even inspire personalized healthcare. Consequently, an increasing need for data analysis is to be expected with the industry's expanding horizon heralding novel developments such as wearable devices, smart glasses, and telehealth services that shall create even more data.