Brussels, 09/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 10 April, the European Commission published a Green Paper on mobile health, marking the start of a public consultation that will end on 12 July.
Mobile health (mHealth) is a fast developing area which - by helping health professionals treat their patients and by facilitating the continuity of care - can enable better quality and more effective health care to be dispensed. It covers medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices like smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices, as well as lifestyle and wellbeing applications connected to medical devices and sensors.
The Commission wants contributions on what should be done at what level (EU, national or regional) to solve issues linked to mHealth. “Mobile technologies can be a huge help to healthcare - from remote monitoring so people can stay active at home to simple mobile apps and devices to take control (…). We will launch this debate (…) to get views on the key aspects that matter like patient safety, legal clarity and data protection. How can we have apps that comply with privacy and data protection laws without, for example, preventing the big data innovations that could develop new drugs?”, said European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes.
According to Commission estimates, the use of mobile devices could help health professionals save up to 30% of the time they spend accessing and analysing information. Technologies like remote monitoring solutions can also give patients a bigger role in healthcare and can keep them living independently in their own home environment. Despite this potential, the use of mHealth remains limited in EU countries, perhaps because of a lack of information among health authorities. Health authorities therefore remain cautious about implementing mHealth on a wider scale. Other obstacles also prevent its development - such as the lack of rules and transparency, and a low level of knowledge among app developers of the legal requirements applicable to lifestyle and well-being apps. In addition to the Green Paper, app developers will be provided with guidelines, in a Commission working document, on analysing the current EU legal framework for lifestyle and well-being apps. (IL)