The mhealth

The rapid growth and popularity of mobile technology has opened an entirely new area in healthcare. Mobile health (mHealth) encompasses any use of mobile applications and devices for health and is a lively area of development and research. mHealth apps and devices hold great promise in terms of potential benefits for the several actors involved (patients, citizens, and professionals). For example, promotion of preventive behaviors and health monitoring, enhanced patient-doctor engagement, improved service delivery in resource-limited settings, patient empowerment, and patient centered care. At the same time, this mobile revolution in healthcare can bring along peculiar challenges and risks that are entirely new and that need to be carefully addressed. For example, the digital divide and related health inequalities, the risk of increased dropout in clinical studies compared, and the issue of guaranteeing evidence base, validation, and in general quality and effectiveness of mHealth. These challenges push for more - and more focused - research in the field and for increasing collaboration among researchers, physicians and healthcare professionals, developers, industries, as well as representatives of the target user groups.