Mobile applications and wearable technologies are revolutionizing public health and the health care sector in public and private domains globally. These industries are now worth billions of pounds. The growth in mobile phone ownership and wearables has been unprecedented. Interestingly, more people own a mobile phone in the toilet facility with over half of the world's population owning a mobile phone and nearly half of these are smartphones. So far, you've been introduced to teach to help and its applications. Now, I'm going to introduce you to and provide an overview of mobile applications and wearable technologies in the context of digital health, provide examples of their use, and discuss some of the major opportunities and challenges to their use. Mobile applications or app for short, fall within the remit of mHealth technologies. An app is a form of software application that are designed for use on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. These applications are designed for use on these types of devices rather than desktop or laptop computers. Wearable technologies, or wearables for short, are a general term used to describe a group of devices including fitness trackers and smart watches that are designed to be worn throughout the day. These types of technologies are designed to collect information on the user's personal health and exercise. In recent years, there has been a shift from the use of wearables that have focused on wellness to those that enabled the real-time tracking and monitoring of patients vital signs. Other types of wearables include therapeutic wearables, are also grown in popularity. Globally, mobile apps have been used in public health and health care for a diverse range of health conditions and topics. Examples from high-income settings include but are not limited to; absolute non-communicable diseases, including diabetes management and care, hypertension, and the management and control of chronic and long-term conditions to areas such as smoking cessation, monitoring alcohol intake and mental health. In low and middle income settings, they have been used for antenatal care, improving vaccine uptake, and a tracking and monitoring of infectious diseases, for example, Ebola and tuberculosis, to name a few. The main areas in which wearables have been used include; measuring energy expenditure, postural correction, sleep tracking, measuring blood pressure, blood glucose, and heart rate. Examples from high-income countries include wearables to stop smoking and for the management of asthma. Examples, if they use in low-income settings include monitoring infant vital signs. Mobile health technologies, including apps, have several advantages, many of which within mHealth generally. The key features of these technologies include the ability to be always on in portable nature, and their technological features. For example, 3G, 4G, and GPS, meaning that they have the potential to improve health care. Other benefits include; data accuracy and the timeliness in dissemination of information, improved patient compliance, remote diagnosis and support, and the notification and tracking of disease spread. While these technologies have several advantages to their use, there are particular disadvantages and challenges. Some of the main disadvantages include the cost of the devices, which is a significant barrier in many settings. While mobile phone ownership has grown rapidly, particularly low middle-income settings where growth has been the greatest, the same cannot be said for wearables. Other challenges include limited government funding and low per capita income, cultural differences, lack of support for technical devices, Internet and electricity reliability and coverage issues. Issues particularly to wearable devices include privacy and security concerns. Further issues that are important to these technologies include a lack of sustainability, data and health system integration issues, and a lack of reliable, high-quality evidence, for example, randomized controlled trials, evaluating the effectiveness of their use. In this introduction and overview, you have now understood what mobile apps and wearables are and their use in different areas. You have also been introduced to some of the key advantages and disadvantages to their use. Next, I'll provide you with an example of a real life app developed to improve contact tracing during Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.
