Technology and Public Health

Technology can be a potent public health tool. For example, evaluations of the free Text4baby app, which provides personalized text messaging services for pregnant women and new moms, finds that participants have higher levels of knowledge about issues such as staying healthy during pregnancy, safe newborn sleep and infant feeding. In addition, researchers found that Text4baby helped women, especially those without health coverage, access health services. Evidence is also beginning to emerge on the potential of health- and activity-tracking mobile apps in encouraging healthy behavior changes. However, ethical concerns remain on how to balance the benefits of new technologies and the massive amounts of data they generate with people's right to keep their health information private.

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