The mobile phone is ubiquitous part of our lives that we often take for granted. It’s impossible to walk down a street without seeing someone calling, texting, gaming or checking their emails. This is becoming increasingly true across the world as well. According to the International Telecommunications Union of the United Nations, there were almost six billion mobile phone subscriptions by the end of 2011 – the same year the world’s population hit seven billion. Obviously many of these are from the richest nations and include people who have had multiple mobile phone subscriptions. Nevertheless the figure is very impressive.
The popularity and wide-spread ownership of mobile phones has not gone unnoticed by the medical establishment and global health experts. These experts, along with a number of entrepreneurs and technological innovators, have formed a movement commonly known as mobile health or mHealth, which has the objective to harness the potential of mobiles to improve health and wellbeing across the world.
The mHealth movement can be defined as medical and public health practices which are supported by mobile technologies, such as mobile phones, tablets, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. Patients, providers, health administrators, and public health advocates can all use the mHealth system to strengthen health practices by improving the services they provide and expanding their overall reach.
There are many opportunities for mHealth to transform healthcare systems, particularly in developing countries and the Middle East. In these places public health information and access to health services are often limited by the lack of facilities, trained personnel and supplies. It is hoped that mHealth can play a huge part in using technology to revolutionise people’s treatments.
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