Digital health options for low-income populations don’t live up to their potential

“Our takeaways were that although apps have the potential to improve healthcare, they also have the potential to cause harm as they become increasingly integrated with the healthcare system…and we did identify some cases in which, for example, patients could enter a very low blood glucose level and they did not get any notification that that was important. In other apps, you could tell the app that you were suicidal and it wasn’t clear that anyone would be alerted…Rachel Davis, senior program officer at the Center for Health Care Strategies, spoke about patients who have multiple co-morbidities as well as lifestyle complications like homelessness. She said these patients are disproportionately affecting Medicaid costs and are some of the most promising targets for digital health interventions (in context with effective coaching).” – http://mobihealthnews.com/43891/digital-health-options-for-low-income-populations-dont-live-up-to-their-potential

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