A newly formed Health Information and Management Systems Society committee focused on the use of mobility in healthcare features 12 members and will formally launch July 1.
The first agenda item will be assessing the overall landscape of mobility in healthcare, committee member Kevin Lasser, CEO of JEMS Technology, told FierceMobileHealthcare in an email interview. The increasing use of mobile devices and apps in healthcare is the prime driver behind HIMSS committee effort, he explained.
"By having a vast array of experts in the mobile healthcare space on the board, from an attorney to an entrepreneur, we believe we have a very eclectic and knowledgeable group," Lasser said.
Harry Greenspun (pictured), a senior advisor for the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions who also serves on the committee, said he hopes the committee will identify critical enablers of mHealth while sifting through hype.
"While I'm confident that healthcare can be positively transformed by mHealth, we need to understand the factors that yield results or inhibit progress," Greenspun told FierceMobileHealthcare via email. "That will likely encompass public policy, interoperability, privacy, and other issues."
The committee comes as the mHealth device and app industry is on the cusp of huge growth. Global shipments of wearable technology hit 19.2 million this year, and should reach 112 million in 2018, according to IDC Research. Meanwhile, the mHealth monitoring and diagnostic medical device industry will be a $8.03 billion market by 2019, according to a Transparency Market Research report published last month.
The onslaught of devices and software is a primary reason the committee is needed, Greenspun told FierceMobileHealthcare.
"The majority of current mHealth apps sit in tiny silos in the fitness and wellness space," he said. "We need to bring this innovation into healthcare in a logical way."
The committee also includes committee chair Robert Jarrin, senior director of government affairs for Qualcomm; Nick van Terheyden, CMIO of Nuance Communications; Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, a health economist and blogger for THINK; Mallesh Murugesan, founder and CEO of Abeyon; Richard Grondek, director of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; Mony Weschler, chief app strategist and architect at Montefiore Medical Center; Brian Balow of Dickinson Wright; Brian Rothman, medical director at Perioperative-Vanderbilt University; David Lee Scher, M.D., director and owner of DLS Healthcare Consulting; and Morgan Reed, executive director for the Association for Competitive Technology.
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