Customer Reviews

Texting 4 Health: A Simple, Powerful Way to Change Lives (Stanford University) (Stanford University)

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Texting 4 Health is a primer on cell phone texting technology, a text campaign how to guide, and a rich library of case studies demonstrating how texting can be used to promote health in one neat package.

It's an exceptionally useful and accessible book. It's a must have book for anyone planning a public health intervention. I say that because texting has the potential to enhance almost any effort due to the wide use of cell phones by patients. It's the perfect channel for short messages targeted to trigger specific health promoting behaviors.

I picked it up because my wife and I designed a pilot for a major health care system to help moms with newborns. The goal was to reduce unnecessary visits which add costs and reduce patient satisfaction. We found that a educational booklet, a short class before sending moms home, and two follow up phone conferences reduced unnecessary visits to zero and dramatically increased patient satisfaction. The challenge was to get moms to call in for the conference calls. We think we could dramatically increase participation in the follow up conference calls using text messages to remind moms to dial into conference calls. This book has given us the insight we need to add a text dimension to our campaign.

Another appealing aspect is that this book is written by both practitioners and academics. It has a practical how-to element as well as great user research. I particularly liked chapter 12, which talks about designing text messaging services with user research. This is what I expect of Stanford University, having catalyzed the miracle that is Silicon Valley by bridging the academic and practical worlds.

I have worked with the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford, and work in the persuasion academic space. This is a great collection of applications of mobile persuasion for health benefit, and I recommend it for anyone working in health or persuasive technology.