Four Ps critical to effective mHealth: People, Places, Payment and Purpose

Four Ps critical to effective mHealth

There are four critical dimensions necessary for mobile healthcare to attain its full potential, according to a new Deloitte report.

“The key to the four dimensions is to be sure all are considered, which is associated with greater success and return on investment,” Henry Greenspun, senior advisor for Deloitte, told FierceMobileHealthcare. “Typically, when mHealth programs fail, it is often the result of one of the dimensions being overlooked.”

According to Greenspun and Deloitte, everything breaks down to the four “P” segments:

  • People: An understanding of demographics such as age, gender and income play into customization and targeting of users’ mHealth experiences.
  • Places: The infrastructure needs such as local networks, download speeds and bandwidth capacity are viewed as a “tipping point” for mHealth adoption.
  • Payment: The quest to find more efficient ways to improve care while increasing quality. In particular, mHealth services need to aligned with current payment system, which may not reimburse for telehealth sessions.
  • Purpose: Fitness, wellness, care provision, disease management and complex case management but the approach has to fit the condition.

The study also noted that the platform needed for mHealth exists and resides in consumers’ hands. “What remains to be firmly established is proven evidence of mobile’s sustainable value to the health care industry,” the report stated.