Open mHealth is a non-profit organization thats working to turn the dial on mobile health innovation to amplify health outcomes.

By enabling a collaborative community of developers and health innovators, together were producing and sharing a free and open software architecture. Open mHealth actively engages with the developer community, academic institutions, health care innovators, tech startups, and open source advocates to help advance our mission and vision. Our first pilot use case is PTSD Coach, a mobile application created by the Veterans Administration National Center for PostTraumatic Stress Disorder. Open mHealth software modules will support collection, analysis, and presentation of patient-generated data for clinical PTSD care. Why mHealth? Mobile phones are proximate, personalized, and affordable. By empowering individuals to track and manage their own health, mHealth applications can: Collect and deliver information that is individually tailored; Enhance communication and coordination among patients, providers, and organizations; Reduce costs and improve user-centric care by reaching patients in their daily lives; and Generate evidence to advance clinical science.
The numbers 43% of U.S. mobile phone subscribers own a smartphone (Nielsen's third-quarter survey 11 of mobile users). > 10,000 health-related applications are currently available for download to smartphones (Apple). 14% of smartphone users will use a mobile health app in 2011 (IDC). Published studies show improved clinical outcomes (i.e. reduction in blood sugar levels among diabetes patients) using mHealth apps (Diabetes Care, 2011). By 2014, the market for mobile health care apps is estimated to reach $1.7B (Chilmark Research) with $4.5B spent on wireless health care (In-Stat). Underserved populations are using mobile technologies; 80% of Medicaid patients text regularly (PWC).

Why open mHealth? The data streams generated by mHealth applications contribute simultaneously to three essential feedback loops: self-care, clinical care, and research evidence. The most significant bottleneck, however, for continued innovation is the slow evolution of sensemaking tools techniques for extracting and evaluating data features and patterns which are needed to drive these feedback loops. In addition, existing silos discourage the sharing of data and limit the rate and breadth of impact. Opening mHealth will prevent the undesirable state of affairs seen in electronic health records where the absence of interoperability between Underserved populations are using different systems has greatly hindered data-driven clinical discovery and decision-making. Open mHealth aims to expand the power and coherence of mHealth interventions through the creation of a patients text regularly (PWC). uniform architecture that can support systematic sharing, analysis, and presentation of collected data as never before. By creating an open community to generate rapid cycles of design, deployment, learning, sharing, and evidence generation, Open mHealth will increase the validity and efficiency of shared components and methods. Learn how you can get involved at OpenmHealth.org.
mobile technologies; 80% of Medicaid

Open mHealth is led by Deborah Estrin, PhD, the Jon Postel Chair in Computer Networks and the director of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at UCLA, and Ida Sim, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine and the director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Informatics at UCSF. For further information, contact David Haddad, the program manager, at david@openmhealth.org or visit www.OpenmHealth.org.

Open mHealth is a project of the Tides Center, and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations Pioneer Portfolio and the California HealthCare Foundation.