The most effective way to deal with change is to help create it.

L. W. Lynett (IBM executive 1960's)

Web 2.0

In less than one decade, health educators have witnessed multiple generational shifts in communication technologies.  Just a few years ago web pages were static and flat, they did not interact with the user.  The internet, now called web 2.0, is the second generation of technology that allows for dynamic interchange between the user and the technology.  For example, posting to a blog, playing a virtual game with an avatar designed by you, or creating social networks and affecting political change, all use the web 2.0.  We have smartphones to access this new web 2.0, we can videoconference with soldiers around the world using a cell phone, and we can monitor heart rates or insulin rates with wearable technology.  

Users

Many are concerned with equity around access to technology. Remember, the first iPhone was only released in 2007. Prior to that, most people did not have wireless access to the internet so there were inequities based on income and social economic status. Fast forward to 2012 and the PEW Research Center's Internet and American Life project (Fox & Duggan, 2012) found:

• 85% of American's own a cell phone and 53% of those own smartphones

• Half of smartphone owners access the internet for health information

• Latinos and African Americans between the ages of 18-49 or have a college education are more likely to use smartphones for health gathering information

• Almost 20% of smartphone owners have a health app to track weight, exercise or diet 

• 45% of adult Americans report they own a smartphone

Keeping Up

Innovations in technology are happening at the speed of light. The innovations are so quick researchers don't have time to create interventions and test them rigorously before a new technology is replacing the one being tested. Before exploring technology and health it's important to understand the language.

• BIT - Behavioral Intervention Technologies - using a wide range of technologies, communications, wireless sensors, biosensors, mobile phone and the web to assist users in changing behaviors and cognitions (Mohr, Schueller, Montague, Burns, & Rashidi, 2014).

• eHealth - Consumer driven tools and resources available on the internet, or interactive connections used to expand consumers access to healthcare and health services (Evsenbach, 2010; Norman & Skinner, 2006).

• Internet of Things (IOT) - Anything that can be turned on or off can basically be networked. Think about using the internet to turn on your lights before you get home or a doctor monitoring a heartbeat while the patient is at home or working. 

• mHealth - Mobile phones and smartphones utilize wireless communication technology to deliver health communication messages, interventions and education, screen and monitor biological data, observe epidemiological information about disease outbreaks, and train health workers on the front lines of community health services (Fiordelli, Diviani & Schulz, 2013, Riley et.al 2011). The use of these communication technologies is identified as mHealth. mHealth describes how health researchers and educators have harnessed the power and availability of wireless communication to address population health needs. (Riley, et.al 2011). 

• Wearable technology - biosensors worn by consumers which can monitor biological functions (Bonato, 2010).

References

Bonato, P. (2010). Wearable sensors and systems. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine IEEE, 29(3), 25-36.

Eysenbach, G. (2001). What is e-health?. Journal of medical Internet research,3(2).

Fiordelli, M., Diviani, N. & Schulz, P. J. (2013). Mapping mHealth Research: A Decade of Evolution. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(5) e:95 doi:10.2196/jmir.2430.

Fox, S., & Duggan, M. (2013). Mobile health 2012. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project 2012. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/08/mobile-health-2012/

Mohr, D. C., Schueller, S. M., Montague, E., Burns, M. N., & Rashidi, P. (2014). The Behavioral Intervention Technology Model: An Integrated Conceptual and Technological Framework for eHealth and mHealth Interventions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(6), e146.

Norman, C. D., & Skinner, H. A. (2006). eHealth literacy: essential skills for consumer health in a networked world. Journal of medical Internet research,8(2).