Women in mHealth Development: Young females and their impact to future mobile healthcare technology - A public health perspective

Background – The new era of mobile health applications (mHealth app) are enhancing ways in which individuals can improve health and quickly access important health-related information. Women participate extensively in the healthcare field, professionally (as physicians, nurses, dietitians, public health workers, etc.) as well as informally (as caregivers at home). This provides them with a better understanding about people’s health needs. All of these indicate the potential for women to be successful in technology-based roles focused in healthcare, especially, in the area of mobile health app development. However, existing research are limited to addressing women’s intentions for building valuable mHealth tools, specifically among young females. Getting more women to develop mobile apps can provide much needed public health solutions that are lacking in today’s market, especially, for underserved populations.

Objective – The study objective is to determine how family support and social support factors impact college-aged females’ intentions toward mobile app development and technology-based careers, specifically in mHealth apps.

Methods – This research study includes an on-going survey data collection from potential women entrepreneurs in the healthcare field – college students (aged 17-25) in the areas of health informatics, engineering, public health, health sciences, and information science. The questionnaire-based survey relates to respondents’ intent to become entrepreneurs in healthcare and the key factors (independent variables) regarding received support that may facilitate or inhibit their entrepreneurial intentions and pursuits.

Results – This is a currently on-going exploratory study. Our goal is to analyze study findings from the regression analysis of the survey data for future research on women entrepreneurship in healthcare.

Discussion – The study findings will hold important policy implications, specifically for the development of new programs and initiatives to promote women entrepreneurship, particularly for students in the public health informatics programs, while addressing unmet public health needs.