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Microsoft has announced a new suite of apps in the Windows Phone 7 marketplace. There are more than 50 applications listed in the health and fitness section of the marketplace, including OptumizeMe, a health challenge application from OptumHealth, a business unit of UnitedHealth Group that it blends healthier living with fun, entertainment and social networks; users can set up health and fitness challenges, track their progress, post results to Facebook, and compete or collaborate to reach their health goals.

Leaders at the National Institutes of Health and its nonprofit Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) said they would stand behind the advancement of research for the use of mobile phones for healthcare.At a national conference on mobile health, the mHealth Summit, held Nov. 8-10 in Washington, D.C., NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, called mHealth "a growing opportunity."

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has thrown himself into improving healthcare worldwide. At the mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, he spoke of how mobile phones could potentially save millions of children's lives in developing countries.