title: Using mobile phones in healthcare management for the elderly.
abstract: The increasing average life expectancy is simultaneously increasing the incidence of chronic diseases and the number of healthy elderly people, consequently leading to an increased demand for healthcare management methods that do not involve hospital visits. The development of health management services involving mobile phones will change the focus of medical services from hospital visits and treatments to managing the health decisions made by individuals in their daily lives. However, the elderly may experience specific difficulties in adapting to constantly evolving services. This study reviews various health-related devices such as mobile phones that are available for providing healthcare to the elderly, and the different ways of using them. As the use of mobile phone increases, it is expected that elderly mobile phone users will also be able to regularly check their health status at any time and place. The issues of an ageing population pertain to the entire society rather than only to the elderly, which make mobile-phone-based medical informatics as a health management service a worthy goal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hun-Sung
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Biomedical Informatics, Systems Biomedical Informatics Research Centre, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kye-Hwa
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyunah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Biomedical Informatics, Systems Biomedical Informatics Research Centre, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: juhan@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Ju Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D040421:Cell Phone; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D017216:Telemedicine
keywords: Elderly; Healthcare; Mobile phones