The term mHealth refers to the use of mobile telephony in medical practice, and fits within a more generic concept such as eHealth, which includes the application of ICTs in the field of health. The "National Quality Plan for the National Health System" itself develops its strategy 11 on eHealth.
[see Wikipedia for definitions of mHealth and MShealth].
The development of projects such as mHealth has a lot to do with the rise of mobile telephony around the world. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, declared in the Harvard Business Review that all of his company's strategies would be directed towards mobile technology, with the emphasis on the availability of cheap phones in the world's poorest countries.
It is in this context that several reports sponsored by the United Nations and the Vodafone Foundation point to the great opportunity for mobile phone medical applications in countries where doctors have to deal with a very high average number of patients.
There are already numerous projects using mHealth in different parts of the world; see "Overview of Selected mHealth Projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America"on the map.
Articles
Ganapathy K, Ravindra A. mHealth: a potential tool for health care delivery in India. En: Making the eHealth Connection [Internet]; 2008 Jul 13-Ago 8; Bellagio, Italy.
Lin CF. Mobile telemedicine: a survey study. J Med Syst [Internet]. 2010
Not just talk: mobile services in poor countries. The Economist. 2011 Jan 27.
Sainz de Abajo B, Rodrigues JJPC, García Salcines E, Burón Fernández FJ, López Coronado M, Castro Lozano C. M-Health y T-Health: la evolución natural del E-Health. RevistaeSalud.com [Internet]. 2011; 7(25).
Tachakra S, Wang XH, Istepanian RSH, Song YH. Mobile e-Health: the unwired evolution of telemedicine. Telemed J E Health. 2003; 9(3).
Reports
Anta R, El-Wahab S, Giuffrida A. Salud móvil: el potencial de la telefonía celular para llevar la salud a la mayoría. Washington, D.C.: Banco Interamericano de desarrollo; 2009.
Coleman J. Working with mHealth applications in the developing world: a comparison of three african countries. The Netherlands: University of Amsterdam; 2009.
Earth Institute, The. Barriers and gaps affecting mHealth in low and middle income countries: policy white paper. New York: Center for Global Health and Economic Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University; 2010.
United Nations. Compendium of ICT applications on electronic government. Volume 1: Mobile applications on health and learning. New York, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; 2007.
Vodafone Group Foundation, United Nations Foundation. mHealth in the global south: landscape analysis. Palo Alto, CA: Vital Wave Consulting; 2008.
Vodafone Group Foundation, United Nations Foundation. mHealth for development: the opportunity of mobile technology for healthcare in the developing world. Palo Alto, CA: Vital Wave Consulting; 2009.
Web 2.0
Campos N. m-health: móvil y atención sanitaria. 2009 Mar 24. En: Móvil y administración pública [post-blog].
MobileHealthnews [blog]
mSalud [blog]
Healthcare on mobiles [blog]
Recent mHealth bookmarks [tags en Delicious]
Others
Advanced mHealth solutions: proceedings of the mHealth Summit at the World Economic Forum [ponencias en Internet]; 2010 Jun 28, San Diego, California.
Istepanian RSH, Laxminarayan S, Pattichis C. M-Health: emerging mobile health systems. New York: Springer; 2006.
Rodríguez Yagüe E, Sánchez Gómez MI. mHealth: demostrador de emergencias médicas: proyecto tecnologías del acuerdo [proyecto fin de carrera]. Móstoles (Madrid): Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Informática; 2010.