• HEALTH & ICT

On 21 January EIF invited its members and friends to a breakfast debate on mHealth, just a week before the EIF debate European Commission published the results of a Public Consultation on its Green Paper on Mobile Health (link to the summary).

Therefore it was a timely occasion for policy makers, doctors, patients and healthcare app developers to discuss a way forward for mHealth in Europe.

Michal Boni, MEP and EIF Steering Committee Member, co-organised and chaired this well- attended breakfast meeting. In his introduction he spoke about the rapid development of mHealth markets in Europe. He also suggested how to create the legal framework to fully enjoy benefits of the mHealth in Europe.

Listen to MEP Boni’s opening remarks here:

DS Park, Executive Director of European Public Affairs at Samsung Electronics, led off the panel, explaining how Samsung Electronics as an ICT company is switching from traditional models and generic technologies to mHealth-specific solutions.

Alexis Normand, Healthcare Development Manager at Withings, a company manufacturing various consumer electronics goods for the general public to monitor their health, presented the company’s strategy and experience. He stressed this paradigm shift – driven by the ubiquity of smart phones and other smart consumer devices – from supply-side e-health development to consumer driven development, and asked notably for a clear regulatory definition and distinction between “wellness” and “health” data, and a focus on easy ways for patients and doctors to use such health data to prevent illness at early stage.

Dee O'Sullivan, Director at myhealthapps.net, continued this theme, speaking from the patients’ perspective. She presented the mHealth apps rating system and myhealthapps.net portal as a source to find reliable mobile health applications tried and recommended by patient groups.

Constance Colin, EU Policy Advisor at the Standing Committee of European Doctors, presented doctors views on mHealth, setting out potential benefits and risks of mHealth applications as seen by doctors.

Anja Strootker, Director of the mHealth Policy Connected Living Programme at GSMA, presented comments on the European Commission Green Paper on mobile Health.

Finally, Céline Deswarte, Policy Officer in the Health and Well-being Unit at DG CONNECT European Commission, presented the results from the public consultation on the Green Paper on mobile Health.