Healthcare Technology Featured Article

December 12, 2012

Mobile Technology Makes it Easier to Live Healthier


Mobile technology isn’t just showing it can be a successful health tool; it’s actually thriving, at least according to one study.

Bonnie Spring, PhD, of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, along with some colleagues conducted a two-arm, 12 month trial of standard and mobile exercise habits, and the results spoke for themselves.

Spring tested nearly 70 individuals, splitting them up into two groups. The first group was a standard group, who met for bi-weekly weight loss classes. The second group, the +mobile group, received coaching phone calls for the first six months, and were given personal digital assistants (PDAs) to log their physical activity. 


Image via Shutterstock

Results were recorded after every three months, and once testing was completed, Spring concluded that the “+mobile group had significantly greater odds of losing five percent or more of their baseline weight at post-baseline follow-ups.”

With today’s society constantly on the go, mobile technology allows us to control our own health with our fingertips (for the most part.) Some exercise apps allow you to keep track of your progress like Lose It!. Lose It! gives users the opportunity to have a coach and a plan, all without spending hundreds of dollars or leaving the comfort of your own home. It has many features including the ability to keep track of your caloric intake as well as how many calories you burn during a workout.

There are apps for everyone no matter your personal preference. If you’re a runner, there are several different apps like Run Keeper and Endomondo that will not only coach you through workouts, but keep track of your detail oriented goals.

Are you a Yoga fanatic? There are numerous kinds of Yoga apps like All-in Yoga HD, which offers you over 300 poses and stretches, but allows the more experienced Yoga connoisseurs to create their own routine.

Hospitals in Alabama are taking health and technology to a whole new level. Some hospitals in the Baptist Health System give patients the chance to text in their area code, and receive an immediate response as to the wait time to the nearest emergency room and the estimated waiting times in an emergency room.



Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]




SHARE THIS ARTICLE



FREE eNewsletter

Click here to receive your targeted Healthcare Technology Community eNewsletter.
[Subscribe Now]