Connected Health is Bigger Than Mobile Health – Thinking South-by-Southwest Health (#SXSWH)

Health is where we live, work, play and pray, as coined by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin. That means health is 24×7, and goes well beyond our few-minutes of encounters each year in the doctors’ office. Health is driven by the many microchoices we each make every day, from the moment we rise and decide to eat more protein than carbohydrates for breakfast and floss our teeth, to deciding how far to park the car from the office’s front door — or better yet, cycle or walk to work if that choice is an option. Once we are diagnosed with a condition, those choices also have to do with measuring and monitoring our numbers, like blood glucose, blood pressure, and weight. If those metrics are communicated seamlessly to our electronic health records through the cloud, and a clinician or health coach tracks the numbers, they can feedback helpful advice to us on an ongoing basis that helps us better manage day-to-day and bolster our health outcomes.

Telehealth and mobile health are going mainstream, having reached the mass media beyond health information technology trade press. The latest addition to Americans’ media mindset came in an article on Fox News this week, The Doctor Will See You Now, Wherever You Are. In the text, telehealth pioneer Dr. Joseph Kvedar of Partners HealthCare was quoted as saying, “Consumers are going to see a lot of services come at them. It won’t be called ‘telemedicine.’” Joe is the founder and director of the Center for Connected Health. And it’s the “connected” part that makes the difference between the past, the present, and the future of health care, anywhere.