Mobile health applications are quickly evolving topic that needs attention regarding patient privacy, security and safety legislation while giving an interesting opportunity to support self-management and daily life with allergy, asthma and COPD. The EU and public health community are developing the future EU policies to regulate mobile health.
Limited patient input in to the EC consultation on Mobile Health
In July 2014, we took part in the European Commission’s (EC) public consultation on the developing Green Paper on mobile health (mHealth). The consultation aimed to collect the opinions of all relevant stakeholders to guide the prospective development of the legislation. In EFA’s response to the consultation, we recommended to have m-health data regulated by advanced legislation; a monitoring of m-health applications by competent authorities; and patient involvement on the development of mHealth applications to maximise these apps’ usefulness.
In the results summary presented by the EC, we can find up to 211 responses from a variety of parties interested in m-health development. Although only 3% of respondents were patients’ organisations, nearly half of the contributors asked for more patient safety and transparency of information, by means of certification schemes or quality labelling of lifestyle and wellbeing apps. Some respondents also warned about the risks of over-regulation. The EC also received some examples of m-Health cost-efficiency like the trials in the Nordic countries in which m-Health could generate around 50-60% reduction in hospital nights and re-hospitalization for patients with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Other suggestions include:
- EU and national actions should ensure interoperability of m-Health solutions, this is that they can connect with each other with Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for continuity of care and for research purposes.
- Greater emphasis should be put on actions to promote open standards and the use of the common open architecture or open Application Programming Interfaces.
- Health professionals, care-givers and users should be actively involved in co-designing m-Health solutions.
In the course of 2015, the Commission will discuss with the different parties involved the options available for policy adoption (legislation, self- or co-regulation, policy guidelines). In fact, Horizon 2020 already foresees a series of actions to support m-Health deployment and those will serve to set future work programmes. Moreover, m-Health will be one of the key topics on the agenda of eHealth Week in Riga in May 2015. 
WHO Consultation on m-health ideas for tobacco control
The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding a series of activities to explore electronic and m-health interventions which could play a role in the care and control of tuberculosis and tobacco-related diseases. As part of this activity, WHO would like to know which ideas you think should be prioritised for development in the areas of: 1) Patient care 2) Connected medical devices 3) Surveillance and 4) Electronic learning. The survey is anonymous and takes 15 minutes to reply. You have until February 8 to participate here.
Disparities on Electronic Health Records laws and eHealth services in EU Member States
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are part of an interoperable infrastructure that allows different healthcare providers to access and update health data to ensure the continuity of care of the patient. However, a new study funded by the European Commission suggests there are major disparities on the deployment of EHRs between countries. The same is said about the approach used to regulate EHRs - some countries have set specific rules for EHRs, others rely on general health records and data protection legislation-. If you are interested to know how is your country doing when it comes to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and what is the interaction with cross-border e-Health services, please find the answers and recommendations of the report here.
New campaign on patients’ personal data
The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has a great potential to ensure that healthcare is affordable and accessible to all, even in remote areas. It has also the potential to provide researchers with more accurate personal and disease related data aiming to better and earlier diagnosis: for example, the link between smoking and lung cancer was established only thanks to using personal data. Limiting scientists’ ability to use patients personal data in their research would stem their ability to advance medical science and derail progress towards a healthier Europe. However, one of the biggest challenges to the successful use of ICT in healthcare is to ensure patients’ data safety and security. For that reason, the EU is working on a new EU Data Protection Regulation aimed to protect the use of personal data. However, possible developments of the regulation are likely to threaten use of personal data for research. To address the prospective challenge to health-related developments, the European Data in Health Research Alliance has launched a campaign to ensuring that the Data Protection Regulation would allow researchers to continue their work. To know more about the campaign, Data Protection regulation and ICT use in healthcare and research, please visit: http://www.datasaveslives.eu/