The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Text4Health Task Force has made several recommendations for HHS' role in encouraging and developing health text messaging initiatives, according to an HHS news release.
The task force has issued seven recommendations for HHS:
1. Facilitate health text messaging development. Develop and host evidenced-informed health text message libraries for the public.
2. Research and evaluate effectiveness. Develop further evidence on the effectiveness of health text messaging programs.
3. Foster partnerships among federal government agencies and with non-federal organizations. Explore and develop partnerships to create, implement and disseminate health text messaging and mobile health programs.
4. Coordinate efforts across HHS. Form a mobile health community of practice that meets regularly to discuss and coordinate mHealth activities, including health text messaging, across the department.
5. Integrate health text messaging/mHealth with other HHS health IT priorities, such as electronic health records, cloud computing and health games. Align health text messaging/mHealth activities with other HHS health IT priorities.
6. Delineate privacy/security issues. Conduct more research on the privacy and security risks of text messaging health information and establish guidelines for managing privacy/security issues.
7. Consider regulatory issues. Relevant HHS agencies should conduct research on future trends of text messaging technologies and establish regulatory guidelines that can be used to treat, cure, mitigate or prevent diseases or conditions.
Based on these recommendations, HHS has launched several new initiatives:
1. SmokeFreeTXT. The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health is launching this mobile smoking cessation service for teens and young adults.
2. QuitNowTXT. The NCI is launching a library of smoking cessation messages as an interactive text-based intervention for adult smokers.
3. Diabetes self-management education courses. The HHS Office of Minority Health, American Association of Diabetes Educators, AT&T and Baylor University have launched an investigation of the use of smart phones' secure video streaming by demonstrating live clinician-/community health worker-directed diabetes self-management education courses.
4. Apps Against Abuse developer's challenge. HHS and the White House have launched this national competition to encourage the development of applications that can help young adults connect with trusted friends in real-time to prevent abuse or violence.
5. mHealth Community of Practice. HHS is launching a group to help evaluate mHealth activities and practices across the department.
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The task force has issued seven recommendations for HHS:
1. Facilitate health text messaging development. Develop and host evidenced-informed health text message libraries for the public.
2. Research and evaluate effectiveness. Develop further evidence on the effectiveness of health text messaging programs.
3. Foster partnerships among federal government agencies and with non-federal organizations. Explore and develop partnerships to create, implement and disseminate health text messaging and mobile health programs.
4. Coordinate efforts across HHS. Form a mobile health community of practice that meets regularly to discuss and coordinate mHealth activities, including health text messaging, across the department.
5. Integrate health text messaging/mHealth with other HHS health IT priorities, such as electronic health records, cloud computing and health games. Align health text messaging/mHealth activities with other HHS health IT priorities.
6. Delineate privacy/security issues. Conduct more research on the privacy and security risks of text messaging health information and establish guidelines for managing privacy/security issues.
7. Consider regulatory issues. Relevant HHS agencies should conduct research on future trends of text messaging technologies and establish regulatory guidelines that can be used to treat, cure, mitigate or prevent diseases or conditions.
Based on these recommendations, HHS has launched several new initiatives:
1. SmokeFreeTXT. The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health is launching this mobile smoking cessation service for teens and young adults.
2. QuitNowTXT. The NCI is launching a library of smoking cessation messages as an interactive text-based intervention for adult smokers.
3. Diabetes self-management education courses. The HHS Office of Minority Health, American Association of Diabetes Educators, AT&T and Baylor University have launched an investigation of the use of smart phones' secure video streaming by demonstrating live clinician-/community health worker-directed diabetes self-management education courses.
4. Apps Against Abuse developer's challenge. HHS and the White House have launched this national competition to encourage the development of applications that can help young adults connect with trusted friends in real-time to prevent abuse or violence.
5. mHealth Community of Practice. HHS is launching a group to help evaluate mHealth activities and practices across the department.
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