Six differences between eHealth and mHealth

Donna Cusano

Dr. Ted Eytan, M.D., Medical Director for Delivery Systems Operations Improvement for the Permanente Federation (Kaiser Permanente), has a blog post that’s gained notice for drawing the differences between eHealth and mHealth.  He classifies the differences by delivery systems:  eHealth as the desktop (notebook, netbook) and mHealth as the mobile/smartphone delivery system.  This editor (Donna) would debate the point (I think of eHealth as the ‘macro’ term and mHealth as a subset because of the overlap) but the differences in development (much mobile development is in the developing world, mobile is harder to develop than desktop) and users (desktop users more educated, affluent, First World; mobile far better distributed worldwide), and quality of ‘feel’ challenges assumptions.  It’s a race with mobile being both more interesting and personal. Read Brian Dolan’s summary in Mobihealthnews or go to Dr. Eytan’s blog directly.  3G Doctor posting in similar territory on mobile as ‘mass media’ with the ability to collect sensor data (always on), personal, and measurable in audience (plus 5 others).