Google Health: The future of healthcare is mobile

In an interview with Google Health Product Manager Roni Zeiger specified that mobile phones, connected devices and mHealth applications will become a crucial part of Google’s health plans in the near future.

To read the full interview transcript on Google Health :: The future of healthcare is mobile with Roni Zeiger.

Hospitals Stay Competitive with Mobile Sites

According to eMarketer, 42% of U.S. consumers used smartphones in 2009 and 72% of physicians reportedly using smartphones this year, the writing is on the wall for healthcare marketers that to remain competitive, hospitals and health systems must create branded mobile-specific Web sites.

Example :: Southern Regional Hospital in Riverdale, GA, created a mobile-friendly website “to allow smartphone users to rapidly access key information without the long delays that typically occur when trying to open Web sites on mobile devices,” says Marcus Gordon, strategic marketing manager for the health system.

“It is expected that nearly 70% of all information searches in the next five years will include a mobile device,” Martin Beerman, Southern Regional Health System and Children’s Hospital, vice president of marketing & community relations, said in a release. Children’s Hospitals has created a mobile friendly webiste and are already seeing results. “We understand families are on the go more than ever, and the mobile versions of our hospital, children’s physicians and foundation sites have been created to target those mobile needs.”