Texting for Public Health

A

Aggregator: An SMS service provider that acts as an intermediary between users, recipients and the mobile carriers.

C

Carriers: Wireless telecommunications service providers (like AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, to name a few).

Client/Patient: A member of the public who presents for health care (mental or physical), including minors and adults receiving health care, social services, dental services and other health care services from an organization. Clients/patients include deceased persons who have received care.

H

HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act protects patient health data.

M

Mobile health industry: The field focused on using mobile devices as tools in medicine and public health. It is sometimes called "mHealth."

P

Protected Health Information: All information related to physical and mental health conditions, provision of health care, and payment for health care that can be connected to a specific person.

Public: Individuals who can opt in to receive general educational health promotion and prevention messages.

Q

Q-Study: Q Methodology is a research method used to measure people's subjectivity or viewpoint about a topic. It involves rank ordering opinion statements in terms of how much they relate to another statement. It allows the researcher to understand the different types of people in the population—groups of people who think similarly about a topic.

S

Short Code: Five or six-digit special telephone numbers used for sending SMS messages.

SMS (Short Message Service): 160-character messages sent over a cell phone or through a web-based interface to one or more cell phone recipients.

SMS Vendor: A company that provides a web-based interface to store contact lists and manage the flow of messages from the sender to cell phone carriers.

W

Web-Based System: An online platform that allows text message program administrators to send messages to many end users. These systems may also allow administrators to sort, track, and report on specific campaigns or programs.

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