We are very pleased to announce the IFTF Health Horizons Fall Conference on Reinventing Health Care in a Mobile World. The conference was held on October 14-15, 2008 at the Fairmont Hotel in
San Francisco.

The mobile phone is becoming an important platform for managing health, facilitating transparency in market transactions, and accessing health information in more contexts and settings across the global health economy. Soon the mobile phone will become not only a tool for accessing market information at the point of purchase, but also an important tool for managing our health identities and sustaining good health behaviors. Already, downloadable applications are transforming mobile phones into tools for weight loss, glucose monitoring, or adherence to medical treatment. New user models--such as self-care, peer-to-peer disease management, and citizen public health--continue to emerge with the potential to drive tranformational change at the level of the patient, the community, and the health system.

Over the next ten years, the proliferation of a wide range of open mobile devices will accelerate the trends towards "anytime, anyplace" health, shifting health management out of clinical settings and into new contexts (including the workplace, the home, and while on the go).

At this conference, we looked at how health and health care gets transformed in a mobile world and explore alternative futures. We also looked for insights (those opportunities and threats) that will guide strategic decision making in anticipation of this important future.

If you have questions about the conference, please contact Dawn Alva at 650.233.9585 or dalva@iftf.org.