The mobile operators and their trade organisation have proved themselves to be spectacularly clueless when it comes to understanding the big mHealth opportunities but I think this caller ID checking Scam Block service introduced by T-Mobile is a very positive move.

It’s in no way going to prevent all attempts (eg. concerted manual efforts to scam specific Patients who identify themselves through online review sites etc are probably not going to be effected as they’re done on an individual basis rather than by robocallers) but Patients are very vulnerable as so many EHR databases (containing telephone numbers) have been hacked and there’s enormous scope for tech like this to be expanded to also end fraudulent practices like caller ID spoofing.

For a start wouldn’t it be great if the customer could with a simple swipe redirect the call to a roboanswer service run by T-Mobile to collect intelligence on scams and waste scammer time.

T-Mobile Introduces New Network Technology to Protect Customers from Phone Scams