Mobile health (mHealth) encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia into increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems and has the potential to improve tens of thousands of lives each year. The ubiquity and penetration of mobile phones presents the opportunity to leverage mHealth for maternal and newborn care, particularly in under-resourced health ecosystems. Moreover, the slow progress and funding constraints in attaining the Millennium Development Goals for child and maternal health encourage harnessing innovative measures, such as mHealth, to address these public health priorities. This literature review provides a schematic overview of the outcomes, barriers, and strategies of integrating mHealth to improve prenatal and neonatal health outcomes. Six electronic databases were methodically searched using predetermined search terms. Retrieved articles were then categorized according to themes identified in previous studies. A total of 34 articles and reports contributed to the findings with information about the use and limitations of mHealth for prenatal and neonatal healthcare access and delivery. Health systems have implemented mHealth programs to facilitate emergency medical responses, point-of-care support, health promotion and data collection. However, the policy infrastructure for funding, coordinating and guiding the sustainable adoption of prenatal and neonatal mHealth services remains under-developed. The integration of mobile health for prenatal and newborn health services has demonstrated positive outcomes, but the sustainability and scalability of operations requires further feedback from and evaluation of ongoing programs.

We reviewed the literature on the use of text messaging for clinical and healthy behaviour interventions. Electronic databases were searched in December 2009 using keywords related to text messaging and health interventions. The final review included 24 articles. Of those, seven covered medication adherence, eight discussed clinical management and nine reported on health-related behaviour modification. Sixteen were randomized controlled trials (RCT), five were non-controlled pre-post comparison studies and three were feasibility pilots not reporting a behavioural outcome. The frequency of messaging ranged from multiple messages daily to one message per month. Among the 16 RCTs, 10 reported significant improvement with interventions and six reported differences suggesting positive trends. Text messaging received good acceptance and showed early efficacy in most studies. However, the evidence base is compromised by methodological limitations and is not yet conclusive.

With the growth of Facebook, public health researchers are exploring the platform's uses in health care. However, little research has examined the relationship between Facebook and traditional hospital quality measures. The authors conducted an exploratory quantitative analysis of hospitals' Facebook pages to assess whether Facebook "Likes" were associated with hospital quality and patient satisfaction. The 30-day mortality rates and patient recommendation rates were used to quantify hospital quality and patient satisfaction; these variables were correlated with Facebook data for 40 hospitals near New York, NY. The results showed that Facebook "Likes" have a strong negative association with 30-day mortality rates and are positively associated with patient recommendation. These exploratory findings suggest that the number of Facebook "Likes" for a hospital may serve as an indicator of hospital quality and patient satisfaction. These findings have implications for researchers and hospitals looking for a quick and widely available measure of these traditional indicators.

Objective To evaluate the correlation of the maximum six minutes of daily activity (M6min) with standard measures of functional capacity among older adults with heart failure (HF) in comparison to younger subjects and its prognostic utility. Design Prospective, cohort study. Setting Tertiary care, academic HF center. Participants Sixty, ambulatory, adults, NYHA Class I-III, stratified into young (51±10 years) and older cohorts (77±8 years). Intervention Continuous actigraphy monitoring on the non-dominant wrist. Measurements Correlation between M6Min and measures of functional capacity (6 minute walk distance; 6MWT) and with peak VO2 by cardiopulmonary exercise testing in a subset. Survival analysis was employed to evaluate the association of M6Min with adverse events. Results Compliance with actigraphy was high (90%) and did not differ by age. The correlation between M6min and 6MWT was higher in subjects ≥ 65 years of age than those <65 years of age (r=0.702, p=0.0002 vs. r=0.490, p=0.002). M6min was also significantly associated with peak VO2 (r=0.612, p=0.006). During the study, 26 events occurred (2 deaths, 10 hospitalizations, 8 emergency room visits and 6 intercurrent illnesses). The M6min was significantly associated with subsequent events (Hazard ratio of 2.728; 95% CI: 1.099–6.775, p=0.031) independent of age, gender, ejection fraction, NYHA class, brain natriuretic peptide, and 6MWT. Conclusions The high compliance with actigraphy and association with standard measures of functional capacity and independent association with subsequent morbid events suggests that it may be a useful for monitoring older adults with heart failure.