Brian Dolan at MobiHealth News has a very interesting report from last weeks TEPR+ Conference where Arlene Harris, Chairwoman and co-founder of GreatCall (the parent company of the senior-focused GoJitterbug mobile phone service) announced her company’s plans to offer a number of mHealth related applications and services.

The company and it’s eminent founders have always been pioneers, they are ideally placed to serve this market but it can’t be just me that thinks this latest plan is very unusual. The bit I’m confused about is that apparently these services are to be offered using the same types of simple to use mobiles that they have been retailing to date, with the innovation being delivered through a walled garden approach to the mobile internet which would prevent customers using services outside of the service providers control.

With the growth of easy to develop open source OS platforms such as that from Symbian or Android surely this is a very bad idea? I get the feeling that they are underestimating the power of smartphones and the ability for applications to deliver services that are easy to use for even the most technophobic. Surely an approach to stick with basic devices will prevent patients benefiting from services that rely on bluetooth interactivity, imaging, LBS, communities, video calling and in the future NFC, MEMS etc etc.

The article is also very interesting because it reveals the quite surprising amount of investment GreatCall has required to get it to this stage: “My original business plan said we would be cashflow positive after an investment of $26 million, it’s clear we are going to be way over $100 million [in investments] before our business is profitable”.

Without doubt a great company – but is the transformation of our broken healthcare system really going to happen because of dated mobiles that must rely upon small developer communities with limited access to advanced next generation technologies?