"mHealth Was Born at the Wrong Time" – Reflections from the 2015 U.S. Mobile Health Conference (Part II)

On the second day of the 2015 Mobile Health Annual Conference, a lineup of heavyweight speakers continued to deliver macro-level yet practical presentations. The featured speakers included the IBM Vice President in charge of the IBM Watson project; the author of *The Story of Internet Health* and Vice President of Connected Health; the Vice President of Digital Health at Walgreens, who leads the most successful mobile telemedicine business model in the United States; the Chief Medical Officer for Intel’s Global Health and Life Sciences Program; and the founder of the world’s largest Health Credit Score system, who advocates that “better health credit earns you better services.” Additionally, FDA officials outlined how to encourage innovation while simultaneously strengthening regulatory oversight of mobile health models and wearable devices.

Opening remarks by the HIMSS Global Vice President:

He said, “On this day seven years ago, the business and investment communities, despite their enthusiasm for and advocacy of mobile health, remained skeptical about its prospects. This left the early pioneers in the field feeling that they had been born at an inopportune time. Meanwhile, healthcare institutions and insurance companies failed to grasp the practical applications and significance of mobile health in public health and medical care. Insurance companies still evaluated performance based on the ‘volume’ of services, rather than focusing on the ‘quality’ of care, as is increasingly emphasized today. At that time, no one could clearly define or predict the role of mobile health within the healthcare system, yet the spirit of exploration and innovation inspired those dedicated to mobile health to press forward.”

Seven years later,Mobile healthcare is brimming with vitality and innovation. Innovation stands in stark contrast to the empiricism of traditional medicine, while mobile healthcare also introduces mobile and remote monitoring tools such as smart apps and wearable devices. It is rapidly transforming modern medical concepts, service models, and insurance mechanisms.Let us listen to the voices of these pioneers, sharing their successful experiences and unwavering steps in exploration!

I. First proposed the concept of "Connected Health" and authored the book *The Story of Internet Health*

“Connected Health” emerged as the keynote theme of this year’s annual conference. What insights does it offer? It signifies that, in the internet era, every individual can proactively, rather than passively, manage their health or medical conditions. Furthermore, the internet and intelligent mobile tools enable people to access information previously unimaginable, making personal health and disease management more precise, capable of mobile monitoring, self-motivating, and emphasizing self-direction. For instance, by using mobile apps or wearable devices to obtain personal health data, individuals can not only monitor their health status in real time but also remind themselves to engage in physical activities to maintain well-being, rather than waiting until illness strikes to consult doctors and take medication. Thus, we recognize that “Connected Health” is subtly guiding people toward proactive participation in health management, a trend that will shape societal development. All of this has been made possible by the advancement and refinement of internet technologies.

II. Mobile Health: IBM Watson’s Performance and Future Predictions

Today, people’s understanding of personal computers has not undergone any qualitative leap compared to two decades ago. However, the performance of IBM Watson has heralded that intelligent computing is drawing closer to human-level intelligence and is now capable of proactive learning. The cognitive learning capabilities of the IBM Watson robot must meet the following three conditions:

Big data and massive information input;

Purposeful Learning;

Interacting with natural persons.

Watson’s cognitive development mirrors a child’s process of perceiving life and understanding growth. The key difference lies in Watson’s robust cloud storage capabilities. In the healthcare and medical sectors, it leverages vast amounts of information and self-learning analytical abilities to transform unstructured data into structured information, thereby enabling more precise decision-making in disease diagnosis and treatment.

For example, a physician diagnoses and treats a patient’s illness by relying on the chief complaint, medical history, and various clinical test results. In contrast, Watson can reconstruct an oncology patient’s entire life and developmental history, including personal living conditions and work experiences, and then integrate these with findings from modern medical diagnostic techniques, imaging technologies, and genomics to establish the final basis for diagnosis and analyze treatment efficacy. Diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disorders, and diabetes are known through scientific research to be associated not only with individual genetics but also with personal living environments and health management. Thus, future physicians, and even patients themselves, will be able to rely on such super-intelligent robots to reconstruct the onset and progression of diseases. Moreover, individuals can predict their likelihood of maintaining health or developing illnesses, thereby taking preventive measures before disease occurs. (This brings to mind Jack Ma’s sensational predictions: “Doctors will be unemployed in 30 years!” Perhaps this will indeed come to pass.) In short, IBM Watson offers us boundless scope to envision the future of medicine.

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