Cell Phones in Telehealth and Otolaryngology Jessica I. Kenyon, MA a , Ronald Poropatich, MD b , Michael R. Holtel, MD c, * Globally, cell telephones are among the most ubiquitous technologies today. A stag- gering 60% of the world’s population owns a cellular telephone, a statistic surpassing even ownership of televisions. 1 Mobile technologies have become the platform of choice for consumers and industry. With 5.3 billion mobile subscribers as of 2010, its presence is so significant that it surpassed the number of people in the world with toothbrushes by twofold. With greater access to mobile telephones including rural areas, the potential of lowering information and transaction costs to deliver health care improves. Mobile technologies power the tablet or slate computer movement, which has expanded at a dramatic rate in the past few years. Coupled with this move- ment is the application store experience, which allows the user to personalize and customize mobile technologies for their specific needs. Paralleling this popularity, the use of cellular telephones in medicine is expanding. To date, there is a paucity of objective outcome data available on the efficacy of cell phones as an aid in tele- health, medicine in general, and otolaryngology specifically. Anecdotal data suggest, however, that although many applications of cell phone technology are quite simple, they are nevertheless effective in meaningful ways that can impact patient outcomes. The healthcare community, which includes the military health system, now recog- nizes that mobile devices represent an enormous opportunity for healthcare outreach. Views expressed in this article do not represent the US Army, Sharp Rees Stealy, or the University of Hawaii. a US Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), West Coast Satellite Office, US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), 4640 Admiralty Way, Suite 1030, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA b US Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), 504 Scott Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702, USA c US Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), San Diego, CA 92106, USA * Corresponding author. Sharp Rees Stealy, 10670 Wexford Street, San Diego, CA 92131. E-mail address: mholtel@hawaii.edu KEYWORDS  Mobile health technologies  Remote monitoring  Telemedicine  Remote data collection  Cell phone health applications Otolaryngol Clin N Am 44 (2011) 1351–1358 doi:10.1016/j.otc.2011.08.013 oto.theclinics.com 0030-6665/11/$ – see front matter Published by Elsevier Inc.