Healthcare Magazine August 2014 | Page 37

6 Steps to m Health Success
Step 5 : Acquire , build and deliver Only when you know the answers to the previous steps should you start to consider technology solutions to support your project , and most importantly whether to build in-house ( advantages of control ) versus acquire an external solution ( advantages of speed ). The most common mistake we see in mHealth is that sponsors dive in at this stage , prompted by seeing some hot , new technology without having gone through the rigor of the pre-requisite stages .
Step 6 : Measure and improve Assuming you are serious about building a sustainable service with a long lifespan , you need to futureproof your project . What measures do I need to gather ongoing evidence that is working and how will I use that evidence to refine my service over time ? Too often we see sponsors

“ Sustainability and funding needs to be planned from day one , and if you can ’ t identify someone who would fund the service in the long term , then it probably isn ’ t worth building ”

deliver a project and then scramble later to gather some evidence . Build those hooks in from the outset and you make life a lot easier .
There are multiple characteristics on both the supply and the demand ends of mHealth that currently reveal the market to be inefficient and immature . On the supply end , thousands of technology companies are vying to establish themselves with sustainable revenues , and while so far there has been no shortage of backers , investors are beginning to question when the real return will materialize . On the demand side , the large number of potential mHealth users , providers , and pharmacy companies are unclear , and therefore uncomfortable , with the
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