Health Information On-the-Go: Four Case Studies in Effective Use of Mobile for Health

Wednesday, August 21, 2013: 8:00 AM-9:30 AM
Centennial I/II
According to an August 2012 report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 69% of online adults in the US use social networking sites. This is underscored by the fact that globally there are more than one billion people on Facebook and YouTube is the second most used search engine in the world. Overall, use of social media has grown exponentially over the past decade, with 50 million Internet users in just 4 years, 50 million iPod users within 3 years, and 100 million Facebook users in less than 9 months. This exponential growth is linked to the growth in usage and popularity of mobile technology and access. Similar to Facebook, iPhone application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months. There are now over 100 billion apps downloaded per week, 88% of American adults use cell phones, 57% have a laptop, 19% have an e-Reader or tablet, and 63% go online wirelessly. These data show that the mobile space is not just about technology; instead, it has become an important channel for health information dissemination. The advent of digital media as we understand it today has had a significant impact on the practice of health communications. Despite that fact that digital media has been around for more than 15 years, we are only now coming to fully understand exactly how it is changing communications and what those changes mean. This panel will present four different perspectives on mobile media and health information: (1) advertising coupled with surveys, (2) respondent design, (3) mobilizing at-risk audiences through mobile, and (4) creating grassroots movements via mobile. Four experts in the area of digital media and mobile health will provide their perspectives on what was done, results, and lessons learned. Finally, the panel will dedicate a majority of the time to in-depth group discussion of the case studies and foster constructive conversations about mobile for health.

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