CDC Shows the Way on Health Promotion via Texting

Earlier this year, I posted a brief overview on Using SMS to Motivate Healthy Behavior, introducing the innaugural Texting4Health conference, which concluded two weeks ago.

My full coverage is over on Trusted.MD and here I would like to further highlight some of the more interesting case studies. Center for Disease Control (CDC) not only dominated the session on "Public Health, Public Policy, SMS", but will even be producing and hosting the conference next year. They are in the center of this field in the US!

Why is CDC so interested in SMS-driven projects?

Simply put, because texting is shaping up as the most promising way to reach large populations in the US anytime, anywhere. Dr. Jay Bernhardt, Director of Health Marketing Center in CDC explains the reasons in his blog:

The most important platform in the world for collecting and delivering targeted and tailored health information during the first half of the 21^st Century will be mobile phones. Mobile phones and integrated wireless devices will revolutionize the practice of public health and touch billions of lives around the world.

[...]

Mobile text messaging (SMS) can benefit many areas of public health, including early warning systems for outbreaks or public health emergencies, chronic disease self-management, medication adherence, diet and physical activity self-monitoring and tailored messaging, and many other health promotion issues. In my previous academic work, I led a randomized, controlled study that found that individuals receiving wireless text messages tailored to their drinking behaviors reported lower levels of alcohol consumption during the study period compared with control group participants.

I would like to add that texting provides an easier way to reach many underserved populations lacking in computer access and literacy. Mobile devices keep increasing their share of Internet access and keep improving their usability, cost, connectivity and social acceptance.

What are the key CDC projects that involve texting?

Presentations by CDC staff, contractors and partners highligted several key themes around A) Subscribing to alerts, B) Sending texts for specific info, C) Cross-media integration with TV campaigns and online properties. Here are some quick project highlights:  

• HIV Testing Centers via SMS
  The idea of the project, launched for World AIDS Day is to promote more HIV testing. CDC's goal was to encouraging people to text their zipcode to receive the address of a nearest testing center. CBS and Viacom signed up to air public service announcements on TV and CDC also promoted the texting campaign online. MTV airings resulted in 28,000 text requests.
• Mobile Alerts from the CDC.gov Web site
  Offering health alerts is a familiar territory CDC. For a long time their website featured critical public health updates and newsletter subscriptions. Recently they added SMS as a delivery channel for some of the key topics, starting with Flu Maps. Unlike HIV the stats on delivered messages are significantly lower, probably because the project has not entered a "full court press" phase.
• Mobile Technology for Diabetes Management
  This is an example of highly targeted project, focused on a specific disease population with much greater depth of interaction. A joint project with Georgia Tech, used their MAHI (Mobile Access to Health Information) system to monitor diabetes patients via cellphone / glucometer integration. Real-time sensor reading can in turn generate real-time alerts. This is the future of mobile interventions.

Simply put, the role of mobilility in health promotion has nowhere to go but up. CDC is showing the way by prototyping and funding some of the key case studies and it is only a matter of time before they increase in scale and bring about commercial applications.

Mobile health promotion could play a very significant role in helping solve US healthcare crisis.