It’s Quite the Week for Mobile Healthcare

By Jeff Arnold, CEO and Chairman

Whether you’re in Barcelona, Spain for Mobile World Congress, heading to Orlando, Florida for the Lake Nona Impact Forum, or participating in Health IT Day at the Georgia Capitol, this is a week that underscores how much momentum there is in mobile health. And it’s not just digital health companies like Sharecare or hospital systems like HCA who are on the front lines. Many mobile phone manufacturers – from Apple to ZTE to BlackBerry – deserve credit for the serious steps they’ve taken to ensure the privacy and security of their respective devices and policies, making them appropriate for use in healthcare.

Just last week, Apple made a very strong stand on behalf of the privacy of its customers, refusing to hand over phone records to government organizations – a move which many in healthcare supported. And, BlackBerry, known for their expertise in privacy and security, recently discussed how they’ve deployed enterprise solutions in hospitals to improve care coordination. In fact, two hospitals using BlackBerry’s BBM Protected service have seen a 67% decrease in emergency department wait times – an outcome which could literally mean the difference between life and death for a patient.

At Sharecare, we are heavily focused on healthcare’s mobile revolution, and will continue to support and partner with companies focused on improving outcomes and safeguarding personal health data.