Brian Balow is an attorney with the Dickinson Wright law firm and a member of the HIMSS mHealth Committee. From 2003-08, he was practice director for the firm's IP, Business Technology, Telecommunications and Energy Practice, comprised of more than 40 attorneys. He's also outside counsel to a non-profit corporation focused on delivering senior services.
Q. What's the one promise of mHealth that will drive the most adoption over the coming year?
A. Further legal and regulatory clarity. FDA guidance on devices and mobile apps, better market understanding of privacy and data security regimes (including HIPAA) on mHealth implementation, and progress on interstate licensure as well as other ways to address cross-border use of telemedicine.
Q. What mHealth technology will become ubiquitous in the next 5 years? Why?
A. Mobile-enabled personal health records. Care coordination is a reality, and there are serious players and money flowing in this direction.
Q. What mHealth tool or trend will likely die out or fail?
A. I hate to say it but I think that the current fascination with daily wearable or mobile-enabled fitness monitoring devices will fade. Sort of like health club memberships in March.
Q. What mHealth tool or trend has surprised you the most, either with its success or its failure?
A. I am surprised with the lack of broadly-implemented mobile health applications for senior care facilities. From personal, and unrelenting, experience with my mother, I am disappointed in the absence of tools in use at these centers (unless a television is considered a mobile health device).
Q. What's your biggest fear about mHealth? Why?
A. Cybersecurity for all the obvious reasons. A breach could actually be a life-threatening occurrence.
Q. Who's going to push mHealth "to the next level" – consumers, providers or some other party?
A. Consumers ultimately control the money, and additionally I think “regular” people are more savvy than ever about involvement in their own healthcare. Regardless of your opinion of the Affordable Care Act, it has certainly raised the public’s consciousness regarding personal involvement in healthcare.
Q. What are you working on now?
A. Continuing work on privacy and data security within healthcare enterprises, same issues as pertains to health information exchanges, and counselling clients on the regulatory landscape for mobile medical devices.
