The European Commission has launched a consultation on mobile health (mHealth) seeking to find ways to enhance the health and wellbeing of Europeans with the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, patient monitoring devices and other wireless devices.
"mHealth will reduce costly visits to hospitals, help citizens take charge of their own health and wellbeing, and move towards prevention rather than cure. It is also a great opportunity for the booming app economy and for entrepreneurs," said European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes, who is responsible for the Digital Agenda.
The EC executive said he personally uses a sports-band to measure his daily activity.
European Commissioner for Health Tonio Borg added that mHealth has a great potential to empower citizens to manage their own health and stay healthy longer, to trigger greater quality of care and comfort for patients, and to assist health professionals in their work.
"As such, exploring mHealth solutions can contribute to modern, efficient and sustainable health systems," he said.
The EC said some examples of mHealth include apps that measures your vital signals such as blood pressure; apps that help administer insulin to a diabetic by transmitting control signals to the pump from a mobile platform; apps that remind patients they should take their medication; and apps that provide fitness or dietary recommendations to improve users' overall health and wellbeing.
Currently, there are nearly 100,000 mHealth apps already available across multiple platforms such as iTunes, Google play, Windows Marketplace, BlackBerry World. The top 20 free sports, fitness and health apps already account for 231 million downloads worldwide.