The Use of Mobile Technology to Improve Health Care and Reduce Costs in China and the United States

Containing health care costs is a monumental challenge in both China and the United States. The diffusion of mobile technology in these two countries presents a number of opportunities to bend the health care cost curve. Mobile health (mHealth) solutions can increase administrative efficiency, efficiently monitor and guide patient health, and help policymakers gather useful data on what works and doesn’t. What does mHealth currently look like in China and the United States and what might be done to speed its development and use?  How can health care policymakers in these countries use mHealth to solve pressing health care concerns?  How do the uses in China and United States compare in their approach to integrating mobile technology into health care policy and practice?

On March 13, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a panel of experts to address mobile health care challenges and solutions in both the Chinese and U.S. economies. Questions that were explored include: What challenges and opportunities does the field of mHealth create? How can China and the United States develop frameworks to empower mHealth providers to address important problems in health care? Panel discussants also focused on findings and data from a forthcoming paper, “mHealth in China and the United States:  How Mobile Technology is Transforming Healthcare in the World’s Two Largest Economies.”

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