Evaluation of Mobile Health in Healthcare Service Delivery

Running head: MOBILE HEALTH 1
Evaluation of mobile health
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date

MOBILE HEALTH 2
Importance of mobile health
The research paper selected for discussion and critical evaluation relates to mobile health
in healthcare service delivery in New Zealand. According to the study, mobile health is a
practice in the public and private health sector which advocates and recognizes the use of mobile
devices like, personal digital assistants, monitoring devices, cell phones among other devices that
are wireless. The introduction of mobile health is crucial because people are able to connect with
each other through the use of use of mobile phones irrespective of where they are located.
Mobile phones are portable gadgets which facilitate timely delivery of information. Mobile
health has been integrated into the daily provision of health services because people use mobile
phones to communicate every day. The use of text messages is also reported to increase in the
recent past among the people in the health sector. This means the program of mobile health is
now used to deliver service to the disadvantaged groups in the community (Whittaker, Merry,
Dorey, & Maddison, 2012).
A mobile phone can be used to effect a positive change of behavior. The use of text
message to enlighten individuals on the negative effect of smoking compelled them to abandon
smoking. Research has shown that mobile phones have a significant impact on health care
interventions and processes. For instance, an intervention for universal depression prevention for
the people in the adolescent stage was established using cell phone multimedia messaging. The
use of mobile health in carrying out health intervention is beneficial in that it helps in minimizing
the cost of providing health care to the patient (Silva, Rodrigues, de la Torre Díez, López-
Coronado, & Saleem, 2015).
The use of mobile phones provides an easy access to health services and improves the
mobility of these services. It offers vast chances for the healthcare provider to address the