mHealth Ready For Primetime In Clinical Trials

By Ed Miseta, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

mHealth is suddenly a popular buzzword in the pharmaceutical world. What started out as a term referring to mobile and digital programs to help patientsandtheir caretakers has now morphed into a more general term being used in clinical trials to describe the use of mobile technology in research programs.

In the clinical world this has become a hot topic due to mobile technology quickly becoming an integral part of everyone’s daily life. Regardless of who you are or where in the world you live, chances are you use a mobile phone to manage various aspects of your life. On any given day my mobile phone wakes me up in the morning, tracks meetings and other events on my calendar, allows me to send and receive emails, and enables me to post updates to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. In between I will also review my Amazon purchases, check the weather forecast, and record my fitness results. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that mobile devices are also playing an important and growing role in clinical trials. “It’s difficult to find patients and it’s difficult to retain them,” says Tim Davis, CEO and co-founder of Exco InTouch. “Any service that maintains the relationship with the patient while they’re not in front of their doctor can only be of benefit to the industry.”