The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 1 (Feb 2014) | Page 33

EPHA Briefing on Mobile Health
tailored information in their own
language(s) and reporting problems. Given the plethora of difficulties (social, legal, discrimination,
etc.) vulnerable individuals are subject to, health is often neglected
and pain endured. There is potential for mHealth to reach out to
people on the margins of society,
e.g. by providing anonymous advice, meaningful and multilingual
content (e.g. respecting religious
and cultural peculiarities) and location tracking for people in danger.
The possibilities for customisation
are extensive since mobile content

surprisingly, those who make the
most use of ‘apps’ are individuals
living in technologically advanced
Member States [15] while the poor
and lesser educated have little if
any exposure.
Industry
mHealth involves the IT and
telecommunications sectors, the
pharmaceutical industry, medical
devices companies and consultancies. For all of them it represents
an interesting market to tap into,
especially in the current economic

While mHealth can create efficiencies, it
must be underlined that health decisionmaking requires more than raw data,
including information obtained from faceto-face contact that can put the data into
context, which is unique for each individual.
does not rely on traditional literacy
skills. Instead, it can integrate pictograms, voice-recognition, video
content, etc. If a concerted effort
is made to ‘Include Everyone’ as
recommended in the eHealth Task
Force Report [14], mHealth could
represent a step towards reducing
health inequalities.
Conversely, much remains to be
done to improve the availability
and functionality of ‘apps’: each
technology requires its own approach regarding design and content. Many are presently either too
‘cluttered’ or only available in English, hence they remain inaccessible
to the majority. It is also problematic that some require social media
memberships as a prerequisite. Un-

climate in which healthcare is difficult to deliver without private investments. At European level, the
European Innovation Partnership
on Active and Healthy Ageing [16]
stimulates multi-sector partnerships for providing eHealth and
mobile health solutions, e.g. in the
areas of ambient assisted living
and domotics.
The market for mHealth ‘apps’
is still highly fragmented and immature. Many solutions are being
developed without much consideration of health and social inclusion
objectives. In 2012, the first European Directory of Health Apps
[17] was launched by the European
Commission’s Directorate-General
for Communications Networks,

Content and Technology (DG
CONNECT). This repository of
health and wellness apps reviewed
by patient groups and consumers provides a status quo of what
is available, with products ranging
from the useful (e.g., toilet finder)
to the quirky (e.g., yoga poses).
In order to find long-term viability and focus, solutions will need
to have both mass appeal and be
flexible enough for tackling health
inequalities.
Clearly,
fostering
equitable
mHealth depends on the extent to
which end users are able to influence the policy-making and design
process. mHealth takes eHealth
to another level in the sense that
it moves health into a consumer
realm that can be difficult to control and legislate, as the experience
of unauthorised internet pharmacies and bogus health websites has
shown.
Hence, it will be crucial to develop
ethical guidelines and sustainable
business models in line with end
users’ needs. Partnerships must be
formed to ensure that stakeholders understand the stakes and constraints (including legal, operational, security, educational and access
issues), and to avoid that mHealth
aggravates offline health inequalities in the face of mass unemployment and austerity measures. [18]
Governments and Healthcare
Managers
mHealth is of importance to national and regional policy makers
as it promises significant savings
by providing services remotely
and targeting specific population
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The Journal of mHealth