Information Technology Challenges for Mobile Integrated Healthcare

The emerging practice of mobile integrated healthcare is based on a vision where all stakeholders in the healthcare ecology - patients, mobile providers, primary care physicians, hospitals, payers, among many others - work together to monitor the status of individual patients and patient communities, detect or if possible predict salient changes in patient health status, and respond quickly to these changes with appropriate interventions. Culture change in the healthcare system is likely the most significant challenge to achieving this vision, but another is enabling the information sharing necessary to support true integration of all healthcare system stakeholders. This paper explores the technology dimension of mobile integrated healthcare and identifies some pervasive challenges technologists must address to help achieve the MIH vision. The goal of the paper is to help frame some areas of inquiry in healthcare technology research, and to support practitioners in healthcare technology design, development, selection, and acquisition. The paper concludes by describing Summit, a tool developed to help map specific healthcare technologies to specific contexts of use.