What mHealth innovations should we talk about to Medical Students?

Ana Da Silva, Lecturer in Medical Education at Swansea University, is putting together a talk/lecture on Health Innovations for Medical Students and has asked over in the mHealth group on Linkedin what mHealth developments should be talked about.

Please share your ideas to help with this important initiative.

I’ve been providing talks to medical students about mHealth for years and have created a course for healthcare professionals so I thought it might help to share some of my initial thoughts – please feel encouraged to help make this post a resource for others by adding your suggestions in the comment box below or as a comment over in the Linkedin Group discussion.

Check out this slideshare for an overview of the key topics that feature in the mHealth course for Healthcare Professionals:

You’ll also find some more ideas that you might like to include in a talk I gave at the recent Digital Health Summit in Istanbul and I could get you across a video recording of my talk if that’s of interest:

Also get a balanced idea of the mHealth innovations being worked on by other mHealth group members by checking out the “Introduce yourself to the Group:” discussion thread we already have running (600+ introductions!).

Most important thing is to be enthusiastic and ensure you make it all relevant to them:

> Start by asking them how they think we’ll refer to the last decade before blowing their minds and explaining to them that it was the Nokia Decade.

> Help them appreciate that Doctors have always been early adopters of new tech, that the rate of this change is becoming increasingly rapid and that being on top of it is going to be a key feature of their careers in medicine.

> Share with them the success med students are enjoying at UCIrvine.

> Help them appreciate that it’s only a matter of time before it won’t be considered safe for Doctors to practice medicine without mHealth tools and connectivity.

> Inspire them to understand the transition in healthcare demand and the urgent need we have to change tools to meet this.

> Help them appreciate that mobile connectivity will also disrupt how we care as it becomes embedded within medical devices.

> Inspire them to understand social media and the impact on medicine that has resulted from the consumer tech in their Patients pockets overtaking the enterprise technology being used by the healthcare industry.

> Encourage them to buy Alivecor ECG’s so that they can combine this with their enthusiasm to screen loads of people and get some mHealth experience under their belts.

Most importantly good luck and share with the world how it all goes!

One Response to What mHealth innovations should we talk about to Medical Students?

Ben says:

November 4, 2013 at 7:42 pm

Dear Ana

The students might be interested in the free app I have developed called Brush DJ.

The main feature of the app is a timer, which plays 2 minutes of music taken at random from the user’s device. This makes the mundane task of brushing for the correct length of time more fun and therefore more likely to happen. The app also contains the evidence-based oral health advice given in the Department of Health document ‘Delivering Better Oral Health’. Reminders can be set to prompt twice a day brushing, when to change toothbrushes, visit the dentist and hygienist.

This short video gives an overview of all the apps features http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plUxuzEvINg

Brush DJ has recently become the first oral health app to have been approved by the NHS in England http://apps.nhs.uk/app/brush-dj/ .

The second in a series of videos showing how to carry out basic oral health tasks has recently been uploaded to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkq_Mjdjz6U .
The next version of the app will have a link to this video and 5 others showing how to carry out basic oral hygiene tasks effectively. The video along with lots more information can be found on the website http://www.brushdj.com and on the Brush DJ Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brush-DJ/245442625526057 and Twitter https://twitter.com/BrushDJ pages.

Brush DJ has already been downloaded in 164 countries and received mainly 5 star reviews in the app stores. Just before Christmas the app received the Dental Hygiene & Therapy award for ‘Best Dental Innovation’.

If you would like any further information please contact me.

Kind regards

Ben
Dentist/App Developer