Mobile health's growing momentum

Sue MarekAs I prepare to fly to Barcelona, Spain, tomorrow to attend next week's Mobile World Congress, I'm already starting to get a feel for what I expect will be some of the hot topics at the show. There's no doubt off-loading data will be big, as will LTE trials, Android devices and the latest mobile applications. But I also think we will be hearing quite a bit of buzz around mobile health.

Although there may not be a lot of news announcements on mobile health next week, I do think we will see an increased presence of mHealth firms at the show. The GSMA has tried to foster the mobile healthcare space with its mHealth Insight effort, a partnership between the GSMA and the mHealth Alliance. At next week's conference there is an entire track on Thursday dedicated to mobile health topics, and there is an mHealth Pavilion that will showcase companies with innovative applications.

But the momentum behind mobile healthcare doesn't end at Mobile World Congress. FierceWireless and FierceMobileContent are teaming with our sister publication FierceMobileHealthcare to explore this area in greater depth. In conjunction with the HIMSS10 Healthcare conference in Atlanta next month, we will be launching our first executive breakfast devoted to the mobile health topic "Creating a Successful mHealth Initiative." The event will be from 7 a.m. until 8:15 a.m., Tuesday, March 2, at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel.

I'll be moderating the roundtable discussion and my guests will include Ram Appalaraju, senior VP of marketing at Meru Networks; Geoffrey Brown, senior VP and CIO at Inova Healthcare System; Deborah Gash, VP and CIO at Saint Luke's Health System; and Chris Gray, industry solutions manager for healthcare at Sprint. I'll be asking these executives all the tough questions about the pros and cons of incorporating mobile into the healthcare industry; the progress being made to overcome some of the challenges; the lessons learned from early adopters of mHealth; and more. As usual, there will be plenty of time for your questions too!

If you are interesting joining me, please register here. The cost of the breakfast is $65. We will be providing complimentary shuttle bus service from the Sheraton to the Georgia World Congress Center after the event in time for the morning sessions at HIMSS10. --Sue