Courtesy of Neil Versel, his short essay in Mobihealthnews (!) pointing at the hot air leaking out of the mobile health balloon. With conference attendees tiring of treading over the same old ground, and groups either morphing or vanishing into the night and fog, perhaps we have hit the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ and are moving down into ‘the trough of disillusionment’ of Gartner’s hype curve. Not a surprise to your Editors, as we were writing about the distressing signs as early as Jan 2011, and our agreement in ‘dialing back the hype’ earlier this year. His closing: “Mobile health is not a field. It’s a tool, just like any other technology.” Don’t forget, mobile is but a tool in the wider effort to improve healthcare Related: a Versel flashback to his rant on ‘Silicon Valley know-it-alls’
Extra! Firmly on the other side of the argument is David Doherty (3G Doctor) at his blog mHealth Insight, who believes the medium IS the message (health as a ‘mobile experience’). Hat tip to Mike Clark–our first commenter–for directing us to this point-by-point dissection.
Also worth a read covering Neil Versel’s article:
http://mhealthinsight.com/2012/08/01/is-mhealth-just-a-tool-or-a-widget-thats-just-like-any-other-technology/