At Mobile Health Workshop, Leaders from Healthcare, Technology and Academia Develop “Shovel-Ready” Initiatives

The CyLab Mobility Research Center’s Mobile Health Workshop brought together over forty leaders in the health care, information technology (IT) and education sectors to explore challenges and opportunities in this vital intersection where science, medicine, and IT meet one of the most poignant dimensions of the human condition head-on.

Speakers from Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Qualcomm, SAP, Kinnexxus, Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), and Carnegie Mellon framed the core issues and reported on cutting-edge work being done in the space.

In articulating the ambitious agenda of the one-day workshop, the Center’s Co-Director Martin Griss declared "I do not want us to be just another big consortium, I want us to do something. … We are here to be leaders in this eco-system."

Griss told attendees their goals were to identify three "shovel-ready" collaborative initiatives (i.e., health care, academia and industry), and marshal the will, resources and plans to launch these initiatives.

Three critical questions were addressed in the twenty-four position papers submitted by attendees:

1. How will mobile health improve outcomes, reduce costs, and/or patient (and provider) experience?
2. What are the most pressing business, process, organization, cultural and technical issues in mobile health?
3. What are the best opportunities for collaborative university research?

Tony Lin and Omar Abdul Baki, two students in the full-time MS Software Engineering program at the Silicon Valley campus, worked with faculty advisors to present a poster during the summit on the topic of "A Mobile Application to Monitor the Elderly." The poster addressed the problem of costly monitoring systems to assist the homebound elderly.

Lin explained, "By creating a prototype using an "always-on" mobile application, the device could assist in detecting erratic behavior, changes in posture and movement from room to room. This can help caregivers who may or may not be nearby in case of emergency situations." Abdul Baki added, "Being a research assistant to Dr. Griss and Dr. Zhang has really helped me understand the growing trends of mobile software, and its been exciting to be able to make a contribution during my master's program."

For more information on the CyLab Mobility Research Center Mobile Health Workshop, please visit the CyBlog to review the series of reports from the event.