Harris Poll: Consumers feel good about mobile healthcare

SAN DIEGO--With the focus of CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2009 shifting on day two to mobile healthcare, CTIA CEO Steve Largent announced the results of a mobile health consumer survey at Thursday morning's keynote address. The research, conducted in partnership with Harris Interactive, found that among 3,000 U.S. consumers surveyed, 40 percent said they would embrace mobile healthcare products and services to complement their visits to health providers, and 23 percent said they would turn to mobile if the platform reduced or eliminated visits with their doctors. According to CTIA and Harris Interactive, the demographics that responded most positively to the promise of mobile health included caregivers, consumers ages 30 to 44, Hispanics and African-Americans.

The appeal of mobile healthcare lies most strongly in its ability to enable more home-based treatment, according to 68 percent of respondents. Fifty-seven percent cited patient monitoring, another 57 percent pointed to improved patient safety and 51 percent said they feel mobile health applications will simplify medical care. Rural consumers stand to benefit most from mobile healthcare, according to 51 percent of respondents--48 percent pointed to chronic disease sufferers.

Nineteen percent of consumers told CTIA they would upgrade their current mobile data plan in order to seize on mobile health innovations. Fourteen percent said they would upgrade their device for mobile healthcare access.

After Largent's overview of the Harris Interactive stats, he sat down with the father and son team of Irwin Jacobs and Paul Jacobs.  Irwin Jacobs, the co-founder and former CEO and Chairman of Qualcomm is widely regarded as one of the leading pioneers in wireless technology. His son, Paul has followed in his father's footsteps and is the current Chairman and CEO of San Diego-based Qualcomm.

Although Qualcomm is known for its patent portfolio and technology focus, Irwin Jacobs spoke about how he believes the next big advances in wireless will be in how the technology benefits society and improves humanity. Specifically, he mentioned how new applications have helped farmers get information about their crops and fisherman find out where the fish are biting.

But Jacobs also talked about how he believes that all advances in spectral efficiency have been made and that the only way to stretch spectrum more is through network advancements such as backhaul, cellular reuse and alternatives such as femtocells. "I think we have stretched spectral efficiency as far as we can go," he said.

For more:
- see more photos of yesterday's keynote speeches

Related article:
Mobile health, smart grid in the spotlight at CTIA IT

Sue Marek contributed to this report.