For the first time in its history, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference included a health care track — offering 23 different sessions on the topic of technology and health care.
The SXSW interactive event, which takes place in Austin every March, attracted approximately 19,000 registrants this year. The inclusion of the health care track shows how important technology has become in the medical field.
In one of the health care panels, Health: Is There Really an App for That?, five panelists discussed how to make mobile phone apps more useful to consumers and physicians. Currently, there are approximately 8,000 health care apps on iTunes. But research has shown that 26 percent of those apps are used only once.
“When it comes to mobile health, we’re still in the ‘Friendster’ stage, we’re not at the ‘Facebook’ stage yet,” said panelist B.J. Fogg, Founder of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford. Currently, he said, there’s a disconnect between researchers and mobile app developers.
Another panelist, John de Souza, President/CEO of MedHelp, said mobile apps will be more useful when they are able to improve communication between patients and their health care provider. “If we’re helping them communicate with their doctor in a better fashion [with health apps] – we’ve done a lot.” De Souza said mobile apps need to be more relevant, engaging, inclusive, and holistic.
The panelists agreed that mobile apps have a long way to go before they reach their full potential in helping to improve people’s health and encourage more communication between patients and physicians.
Other panels at the event, which took place March 11 – 15, included:
- Social-Powered Ethics: Healthcare Faces a New Curve
- Matchmaking Comes to Healthcare for Doctors & Patients
- Health Communities: Superheroes Who Need a Justice League
- Health Data Everywhere: Not a Drop to Link
- Stop the Bleeding! Immersive Simulations for Surgeons
To watch a video of the Health: Is There Really an App For That? panel, go to http://vimeo.com/21023949.
Podcasts of the sessions will be available on the SXSW website. Check SXSW.com for updates.