Text Messages Offer Health Tips, Reminders

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 21 Nov 2007 - 5:00 PDT

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People worldwide are using text messages as a source for health information, support and reminders, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, text messaging programs -- which do not have a cost to most users who are enrolled in text message plans -- are "fast, cheap and private." Unlike voicemail, a text message is "easier to recall and easier to respond to," and unlike e-mail, "it doesn't require a BlackBerry or other e-mail device when people are on the go," the Journal reports.

Women in England can get reminders to take their birth control pills, some Australian patients with HIV/AIDS are instructed to take their medications and San Francisco residents can get answers to questions about sexual health from the city's Health Department. In addition, German researchers are looking into the benefits of psychological support via text messages to bulimics, and a recent New Zealand study determined smoking cessation programs were more effective in conjunction with supportive text messages.

New Haven, Conn.-based Intelecare Compliance Solutions offers a service to companies that notifies employees via text, e-mail or voicemail messages to take pills, refill prescriptions, make appointments and check vital signs. The company will begin offering the service directly to consumers for $60 per year, according to CEO Kevin Aniskovich. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sensei, owned in part by Humana, sends multimedia weight-loss advice to some cell phone users for a weekly fee beginning at $5.75.

According to Jonathan Linkous, executive director of the American Telemedicine Association, health text messaging in the U.S. "is just starting up," and the group is in the process of developing guidelines for appropriate use of text messaging in the health care industry. He said, "There are obviously times when telemedicine is inappropriate," adding, "Texting someone to tell them they have cancer is one of them."

Because communicating through text messages often involves the shortening of words or simplifying of text, which might be confusing to some people, information should be delivered according to generally accepted standards and guidelines from the medical community, according to Linkous (Zimmerman, Wall Street Journal, 11/20).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.