The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 3 (June 2014) | Page 35

eHealth: Accelerating Towards a Healthy Future

eHealth: Accelerating Towards a
Healthy Future
Article written by Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the Digital Agenda
population ages, the 'silver economy' is
emerging as a highly promising market.

Over recent years the European Commission has been working hard to shape
a new vision that puts people in control of their health and wellbeing. At
the wheel are the patients, on the road
towards efficient and effective healthcare. The benefits are a triple win: putting the patient in control, saving on
costs and efficiency, and creating huge
opportunities for innovative services and
start-ups. This is the ethos behind our
European Innovation Partnership for
Active and Healthy Ageing.
I attended the eHealth Forum in Athens on 12-14 May (2014), which put this
vision on the public stage at a time of
substantial market opportunities. One
of the key issues we discussed was the
emergence of mobile health, or mHealth,
defined as the use of mobile phones, tablets and other wireless devices in healthcare. These are smart devices for disease
self-management and remote monitoring, leading to prevention rather than
cure, and more independent living; tools
offering fitness and dietary tips as well as
lifestyle and wellbeing apps. These new
technologies can all help healthcare professionals treat patients more efficiently,
get citizens more involved in managing
their health and diseases and help Member States deal with tight budgetary and
human resources, while facing an ageing
population.
One example of an mHealth service is
the EU-funded REACTION project

which developed a mobile system that
helps doctors and nurses within the hospital to treat patients with diabetes. Via
sensors, the system monitors vital signals
such as blood glucose levels and administered drugs and gives therapy advice;
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