mHealth apps can contribute to a rapid,learning health system, but this may be difficult if each app is built as a closed application
with its own proprietary data format,
management, and analysis. Such a “stovepipe”
or “siloed” approach fundamentally
limits the potential of mHealth by impeding
data-sharing with other apps and with electronic
and personal health records (EHRs
and PHRs). Ineffi ciencies and lack of innovation
plague health information technology
(IT) systems that are closed and rigid
( 6). For example, a patient who is diabetic,
hypertensive, and suffering from depression
is unlikely to sustain use of multiple,
siloed, noncommunicating, disease-specifi c
apps that each monitor diet and medications.
An open architecture built around shared
data standards and the global communication
network already in place to support
interoperable voice and data transfer can
promote the scaling, coherence, and power
of mHealth. Such an architecture should
complement broader ongoing developments
for scalable and sustainable health information
systems, including various national ( 7,
8) and international ( 9, 10) initiatives.