Mobile Healthcare Industry

A leading example comes from the renowned Mayo Clinic, where Scott Eising, director of Product Management for Internet Services, was inspired to develop a mobile strategy after seeing the impact of the iPhone and the mass appeal that the device and App Store seemed to have. Viewing smart phones as “turning into more of a life management tool,” Eising’s perspective is informed by a distinct content marketing sensibility. “Health is mobile,” he told MobiHealthNews in a 2009 interview, describing the on-the-go lives of today’s consumer.

“The expectation that you are going to reach these people where they are when they want it—we talk about wanting to do that now via the Web or telephonically, but as you really dig into the mobile platform or platforms you just see how well-suited they are to better meet that expectation.”¹⁸

The Mayo Clinic is advancing mobility on other frontiers, too, recently announcing its Home Monitoring Initiative partnership with GE and 
Intel to study if home monitoring of patients with 
chronic conditions can reduce hospitalizations 
and emergency department visits and lower healthcare costs.¹⁹

Eising acknowledges the challenges of optimizing mobile health content for multiple audiences on multiple platforms. Clear to him, though, is that “providing a mobile experience for accessing health information is going to be paramount,” with abundant opportunities for connecting with medical, corporate and consumer audiences.

“Consumers may not yet know who to ask for what from a health perspective when it comes to mobile,” he says, “but if we go out and understand what their needs are and deliver good, simple apps that meet those needs, I am confident that people will embrace them.”²⁰