Digital technology: how it can help towards healthy living - Main contents
Digital technologies can help to bring about better health, along with better and safer care for patients. Europe can make more and better use of information technology so that people of every age can improve how they manage their health and quality of life.
For some years, we have known that Europeans are living longer than they used to. While this is great for every one of us, ageing is still one of the greatest social and economic challenges of the 21st century.
By 2025, more than 20% of Europeans will be aged 65 or over, with an especially rapid rise expected in the over-80s bracket. Since older people have different healthcare needs, national health systems will have to adapt so they can provide adequate and affordable care.
At the same time, they have to keep up with the latest advances in medicine and stay financially sustainable.
That is not such an easy balance to achieve, because the costs of health and social care are already a major component of public spending in most EU countries. This bill is only going to get higher.
To me, it seems obvious that we could make more and better use of information technology so that Europeans of every age can improve how they manage their health and quality of life, in any place.
Healthcare in Europe lags a long way behind virtually every other sector in implementing IT. But it is also clear that IT applications can revolutionise and improve how we take care of ourselves.
Also, many of the IT answers that can be applied in healthcare have already proven to be useful across a wide range of other services.
In Estonia, for example, the healthcare system has been transformed by technology. Just a couple of examples:
- e-prescriptions that not only remove the need for paperwork in hospitals and pharmacies but also give a better overview of prescribed medicines and help analyse use, adherence and trends. Nearly all prescriptions are now issued electronically;
- the electronic health record that integrates data from different healthcare providers to create a common record for each patient.
Everyone in Estonia benefits from the convenience, access and cash savings - doctors, patients, hospitals, the government. So a national eHealth system is certainly achievable and this has already been demonstrated in other EU countries and regions.
But to date, the potential of eHealth in the EU's single market is not being fully realised.
One reason for this is a lack of technical compatibility and common standards, especially since more and more people, health products and services are crossing EU borders in an expanding market where different eHealth systems should be able to talk to and understand each other.
The result is that we have a splintered market in healthcare across the European Union. That means more cost, as well as slow uptake by public authorities and people alike.
One specific part of eHealth is mobile heath, or mHealth, which covers medical and public health practices enabled by mobile communication devices. There is huge potential for innovation here, and the global mHealth market is growing rapidly, providing a major opportunity for European business.
Two years ago, it was estimated at $6.3 billion. It is expected to triple by 2018.
Increasingly, people use their mobile devices rather than a desktop computer to access online content. Even so, when it comes to health apps, take-up is still limited and the data collected is not yet being regularly incorporated into healthcare and prevention.
Part of the problem is awareness, which is why events like the mHealth Grand Tour that started this week are so important. This uniquely challenging bike ride is being held over nine days, but with a major difference: it is open to cyclists with Type 1 and 2 diabetes who will travel through some of the most beautiful parts of Europe, between Brussels and Geneva.
They will be accompanied throughout by tele-monitoring and medical coaching services to demonstrate how mobile health products and services can help people to manage their diabetes and allow them to lead active lifestyles.
But there are many other issues to be tackled as well.
Last year, we opened a public consultation on mHealth to explore how people, health systems and industry could make more out of this booming market, to identify the challenges and best ways to overcome them.
Among those mentioned most often were data protection, patient safety, the legal environment, cybersecurity and ease of market access by web entrepreneurs.
The initiatives planned under our Digital Single Market strategy will help to solve many of these issues. Coordinating digital standards across sectors is one of its main objectives, for example. We are also considering other ways to move forward; we have already started paving the way for an industry-led code of conduct for mHealth apps to ensure that the data they collect is secure and that personal data is protected.
Digital technologies can help to bring about better health, along with better and safer care for patients. They can help health and care systems to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. They also constitute a promising growth market for EU industry, creating jobs and economic growth by combining the ICT, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare sectors.
Most importantly, they can help millions of Europeans to improve their health and quality of life.
Another blog soon.
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