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mHealth: Smart Wearable Devices and the Challenges of a Refractory Context

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The Internet and Health in Brazil

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Abstract

The development of smart wearable devices has strengthened a new area: mHealth. This is characterized by the use of mobile technologies for the diagnosis, monitoring, and intervention of health conditions. When inserted into the wider universe comprising the Internet of Things, mHealth solutions emerge with real-world applications. The myriad of mHealth-based applications already draws a scenario in which these new technologies will be responsible for changing the current logic of healthcare delivery. Nevertheless, there are numerous challenges for mHealth before its full potential can be realized. The Brazilian context is marked by peculiarities regarding the challenges for the dissemination of mHealth. There are few professionals, resistance to adopting new health technologies, an inexistent regulatory framework, regional inequalities, the absence of guidelines for protecting personal data, and difficulty associated with communication networks. Such aspects are discussed throughout this work together with components relating to the current status of development linked to mHealth.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This aspect is also discussed in Chap. 21, which addresses the topic of the Internet of Things (IoT) applied to health in Brazil.

  2. 2.

    Welltok, Inc.: https://welltok.com/analytic_services/.

  3. 3.

    Hekima: http://www.hekima.com/.

  4. 4.

    Piron: https://piron.co/.

  5. 5.

    All system acronyms are in Portuguese.

  6. 6.

    Bragi: https://www.bragi.com/.

  7. 7.

    Europe’s rate was 3.3 in 2014 (WHO 2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Thiago Augusto Hernandes Rocha MSc, Nubia Cristina da Silva & Allan Claudius Queiroz Barbosa

  2. Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Cyrus Elahi

  3. Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    João Ricardo Nickenig Vissoci

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  1. Thiago Augusto Hernandes Rocha MSc
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  2. Nubia Cristina da Silva
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  3. Allan Claudius Queiroz Barbosa
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National School of Public Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    André Pereira Neto

  2. Department of Political Science and International Studies & Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA

    Matthew B. Flynn

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Rocha, T.A.H., da Silva, N.C., Barbosa, A.C.Q., Elahi, C., Vissoci, J.R.N. (2019). mHealth: Smart Wearable Devices and the Challenges of a Refractory Context. In: Pereira Neto, A., Flynn, M. (eds) The Internet and Health in Brazil . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99289-1_18

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