“If you think about the brain as a muscle, then certain activities, like learning maps of London’s streets, are like bodybuilding,” he (Hugo Spiers) says, “and all we can really say from our new findings is that you’re not working out these particular bits of the brain when you’re relying on SatNav.”

Research published Tuesday in Nature Communications reveals two distinct brain regions become inactive when people follow SatNav instructions instead of using their spatial memories.

mHealth Insights

I’ve been using and researching the use of mHealth medication reminder apps for over a decade (long before the Apple AppStore was launched when most Patients/Carers just used the native calendar/alarm apps and Nokia execs were surprised to find that their obscure Wellness App was proving a hit with Patients and getting >100,000 downloads/month) and think we’ll probably find something similar (but more desirable) is happening.

I see no reason to wait for any more evidence to be published before we make it a compulsory  requirement for medications to be complemented by mHealth apps but perhaps the reason we are seeing benefits is because it’s simply less taxing on your brain when our mobiles provide discrete reminders/nudges and this makes it less stressful for us to follow medication regimes?

Related Posts:

Irish Health Service Executive hits Lloyds Pharmacy with allegations of fraud & breach of contract for success of their mHealth service (Aug 2015)

Walgreens CMO shares insights on what it took to create the USA’s most popular mHealth app & mHealth revenues of $375M per month (April 2014)

How long before Mobiles make Med Reminders smart? (April 2013)

‘most women have already figured how to set reminders with the calendar/alarm functionality on even basic mobiles’ (May 2011)

Why aren’t all Healthcare providers using SMS appointment reminders? (Feb 2011)