Mechael Explains Where mHealth Will Be Most Disruptive

Some fear mobile healthcare could replace the need for doctors, in some cases, but according to Patricia Mechael, executive director of the mHealth Alliance, mHealth will only help doctors make better decisions. It won't replace them. "A lot of the time, doctors fear mobile healthcare will make their care redundant, but this won't be the case," Mechael says. "Their role will change and be much more systematically refined. They will be dealing more with acute cases than with the routine types." 

Mobile healthcare devices will be able to do preventative work and diagnostics, she says. The provision of human support for treatment will focus on moments where it's absolutely needed from a skilled health worker. Mechael sees mHealth getting to a place where "it's just going to become part and parcel of how people interact with the health system, or at least that's my dream."...