Risk scores in real-time: the untapped potential of mobile health

Risk scores are used throughout medical care to guide treatments, allocate resources, and control outbreaksof disease. Though valuable, most risk scores are limited by their basis in aging datasets and their use withpatients in single, time-constrained consultations. Mobile health could collect longitudinal or even continuousdata on patient health. Automated, dynamic, and real-time risk profiles could trigger earlier interventions, improveclinical outcomes, guide resource distribution, and preempt outbreaks. Dynamic risk profiles hold enormouspotential for global health, and smartphones are now uniquely equipped and positioned to unlock that potential.We identify cough, an information-rich and readily monitored syndrome, as the symptom that will pioneer ’smartrisk profiling’ systems, prove their value in alleviating the global burden of respiratory disease, and usher in anew era of proactive mobile health.