Europe authorities are developing a roadmap for mHealth solutions to ensure the technology gains widespread use and acceptance.
The EU-funded MovingLife Project is currently running a public consultation on the plans, focusing on the most important needs and requirements authorities will have to satisfy “in order to facilitate the deployment of mHealth solutions”.
It will address a broad range of issues, including technology options for mHealth applications and services; options for new and improved medical guidelines; user empowerment, acceptance, ethics and privacy; socio-economic environments and policy and regulatory frameworks.
The consultation will be used to revise and fine-tune a set of preliminary roadmaps into a consolidated roadmap for mHealth in Europe.
This final roadmap, and an action plan for its incorporation, will be presented and discussed at a stakeholder conference in Brussels in early 2013.
Earlier this year a report by mobile operators’ association GSMA and consultants PwC concluded that mobile technology will be a key enabler of healthcare delivery, reaching every corner of the globe by 2017.
The research also predicted that within the next five years Europe will be the most significant sales region for mHealth technology (accounting for $6.9bn in related revenues), closely followed by Asia Pacific ($6.8bn) and North America ($6.5bn).
• The MovingLife Project’s Roadmaps for Mobile Healthcare consultation runs until on September, 17
