Marlon Anthony R. Tonson of GMA News reports interesting Philippine data from the Nielsen Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report (n=8750; 1200 from the Philippines).
- Ownership of desktop 68% > internet-capable mobile phone 64% > laptop computer 58%
- 21.5 hours online spent per week (second to Singapore 25 h/wk)
- 24% of Internet users surf the web using a smartphone (ranked 5th in region)
Whenever I talk of mHealth, I think of the use of SMS to deliver health information. After all, the Philippines is the Texting Capital of the World. This Nielsen survey indicates the growing opportunity provided by internet-capable mobile phones locally.
What is mHealth? This definition is from the mHealth Initiative at http://www.mobih.org.
mHealth, enabled by mobile phones and other wireless computing devices (mDevices), is the revolutionary adoption of new communication patterns in healthcare that is stimulating the introduction of Participatory Health. Enabled by mHealth, Participatory Health is transforming healthcare from a physician- and hospital-centric system to one that seeks to connect and coordinate the roles of all health participants, including patients, the wide range of healthcare providers, payers, pharma, wellness providers, and more.
Photo from zizzy0104 http://www.sxc.hu/photo/959695
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