mHealth is creating buzz. For those who want to know what it’s all about and find out the latest happenings in the mHeatlth world, the Mobile Health Knowledge Center at HIMSS14 is the place to be.
Situated at Booth 7745 in Hall E, the 100-square-foot center features some 20 exhibitors and an ongoing panel of guest speakers, all putting a mobile-specific spin on healthcare IT. Backstopped by mHIMSS, the exhibitors run the gamut from big players, like AT&T ForHealth and Intel, to the smaller companies making an impact in a specific location or population.
Among them is MeVisit, a Virginia-based developer of "house call by smartphone" services that debuted at last year's HIMSS conference in New Orleans and now operates in Lexington and Bowling Green, Ky., Crystal River, Fla., and San Diego.
Company founder William "Chuck" Thornbury said the atmosphere for mHealth this year is better than last year, when no one seemed to have any funding for new ventures or the energy to tackle the then-nascent Affordable Care Act landscape.
Among the resources being highlighted at the Mobile Health Knowledge Center are the mHIMSS Roadmap, which was launched at the 2012 mHealth Summit and amended this year to include a focus on mHealth apps; and the 3rd Annual Mobile Health Survey, conducted by HIMSS Analytics, the results of which will be presented by Jennifer K. Horowitz, senior research manager at HIMSS, at a 10 a.m. session Wednesday.
Wayne Guerra, MD, co-founder and chief medical officer of iTriage – another of the exhibitors at the center – said mHealth innovators are starting to realize that they can target a small niche of the healthcare market with a very specific solution, then network with other vendors or providers to build out a more complete mHealth platform.
That type of thinking is necessary in this evolving patient-centric healthcare landscape, he said, because the patients are demanding answers to their questions and transparency in their healthcare transactions. If they aren't getting results from one provider, they'll find another provider who will.
It's not necessarily a "build it and they will come" landscape for entrepreneurs and providers, he said. But it is one that favors collaboration and communication.
