iPad, IPod, iKids

While at the consumer electronics show I attended sessions focused on kids and technology. It was great to see so many companies focused on using technology to educate kids. One of the common themes was developing apps for tablet based devices and video iPhones. A interesting stat is that 60% of the top selling children’s apps in app store are for children under 4.

For those of us with kids that love to play games on the iPhone don’t feel to bad about handing it over. In a presentation from PBS kids they described a test where they sent out pre loaded iPod video with learning games. PBS saw learning gains on content and skills from both dpps they created. The highest gains on verbal vocabulary averaged an increase 20% on both the short and comprehensive vocabulary assessments. Here is an excellent slide share on the research and its results.

Another interesting observation from the PBS research is one we have all seen with our kids. When a kid gets a new toy the love affair is intense for the first few weeks then it starts to wane. Content is king even for the little ones. The appetite for fresh content will certainly fuel the growth of new apps, devices and even new app market places .

We should not forget about the companies who have been developing educational products for kids long before the Ipad. This week at the toy fair in NYC several manufacturers introduced tablets for for kids.

The question this raises for me is which platform will emerge as the leader. Will it be one of the mobile platforms, gaming systems or toy companies.

Behavorial Advertising Takes Another Hit from Washington

This morning, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was named chairman of a new Judiciary subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law. The list of activities that the committee will oversee is a long one and it includes the collection of information for behavioral advertising and privacy in social networks.

Says Franken:

“The boom of new technologies over the last several years has made it easier to keep in touch with family, organize a community and start a business. It has also put an unprecedented amount of personal information into the hands of large companies that are unknown and unaccountable to the American public. As chairman of this new subcommittee, I will try to make sure that we can reap the rewards of new technology while also protecting Americans’ right to privacy.”

All of this comes only days after two “Do-Not-Track” bills were introduced in Congress.

Jackie Speier, a congresswoman from California introduced the “Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011.” The act would give the FTC the power to force companies to offer an option that allows consumers to opt-out of internet tracking. A statement from Speier’s office went so far as to say, “Failure to do so would be considered an unfair or deceptive act punishable by law.”

On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush reintroduced his privacy bill which would require companies to get consent from any consumer they wished to track.

And that’s not all. Washington watchers say that a few more Representatives and Senators will be submitting their privacy bills over the next week such as Rep. Ed Markey who will introduce a bill specific to online privacy for children.

Privacy on the internet has become an oxymoron and it is about time that the laws caught up to the technology. In the meantime, internet companies are taking it upon themselves to put privacy protections into place with browsers that allow for opting out of tracking and stricter rules regarding the use of collected data.

But with so many government officials spearheading their own agendas it’s hard to imagine that any one of them will succeed in putting a reasonable plan into place. Certainly not any time soon.

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Medical Monday: The Importance of Mobile in 2011

How many mobile devices do you think the average adult carries? One? Two? Not quite. The average adult carries 2.5 phones. That’s pretty amazing when you think about how the growth in number of voice minutes used by consumers has stagnated in recent years.

That has a huge impact on the way people access information, including health information. Consider these statistics:

• At last week’s ePharma Summit, Google reported that mobile queries are up to 15% from 7% a year ago.
• More that 200 million Facebook users access the network by mobile device. And, more importantly I would say, is that those users are twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users.
• 40 percent of all Tweets come from mobile devices, according to CEO Dick Costolo.
• Two-thirds (63%) of physicians surveyed said they are using personal devices for mobile health solutions that aren’t connected to their practice or hospital IT systems (2010 PwC HRI Physician Survey)
• By 2013, worldwide smartphone sales are expected to exceed 1.1 billion (that’s about the equivalent of every mane woman and child in the western world owning one!).

So what does this mean? Making your content accessible via mobile is a MUST. But that’s more than just making mobile-accessible destinations like mobile websites. It is packaging that information in ways that are digestible on the go.

Mobile Needs to Be Optimized for Social

There are two services I’ve come across recently that are trying to help the healthcare industry grapple with this within social media.

• CMP.LY: a simple solution for required social media disclosures. This system addresses the challenge of disclosure for social media by enabling users to ensure that blog posts, Facebook updates and tweets meet disclosure obligations by regulators. Currently the program covers obligations under FTC but will soon include the FDA. As the industry continues to operate without clear FDA guidance, I expect we’ll see more of these types of services popping up.
• Deck.ly: 140 characters are sometimes just “a little” too few. Enter Deck.ly. This feature of the popular Twitter client, TweetDeck, allows users to deliver longer Tweets and view their full content within the client, and on the web. I would expect such features to grow in importance as social media clients continue to push towards integration across social networks.

Apps Aren’t Going Anywhere

With 85% of smartphone users from 35-44 have download an app and an estimated 500 million people expected to be using SmartPhone Apps by 2015, the app platform will continue to grow in importance. At the same time, however, 28% of mobile apps are only opened once and more than 58% of health apps are deleted after just one use.

As healthcare companies consider how they will use Apps to reach their audiences, there will need to be an important focus on providing ongoing value in those apps. When I think of the apps I use most, they tend to be comprehensive “one stop shops” – not unique apps for individual needs.

Needless to say, we have only scratched the surface of the importance of mobile in healthcare. What do you think will be the biggest impact of mobile on healthcare in 2011?

Image courtesy mobileStorm.

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