Europe’s eHealth Innovations: An interview with Pascal Garel EU Research interviews Pascal Garel, Chief Executive, European Hospital and Healthcare Federation (HOPE), about eHealth in Europe. HOPE’s mission is to promote health for citizens and to push for a uniformly high standard of hospital care in the European Union. Can eHealth provide healthcare solutions for a growing, ageing population? By Richard Forsyth EU Researcher: In the broad spectrum of eHealth categories e.g. training, diagnosis, healthcare delivery etc. – where is the most promise and which do you see as the most important?
Pascal Garel: Healthcare has been slower than some other industries to feel the full force of digital technology. But from wearable sensors providing real-time data on an individual’s wellbeing, to the ability to sequence a person’s genome for a limited cost within 24 hours, it promises greater visibility over personal health and offers the possibility of earlier, more targeted treatment when people fall ill. These devices are part of a shift towards more informed patients taking greater control over their own health, accessing to some kind of digital dashboard of health data. Certainly the first of all the most promising elements is health analytics and Big Data in health: the transformation of data for the purpose of providing insight and evidence for decision and policy-making. Big Data makes reference to a big amount of data, larger and more complex than traditional data processing can process; this requires the use of distributed systems and advanced methods of data analysis. The second most promising elements are electronic health records (EHRs), real-time patient-centred records that provide immediate and secure information to authorised users. EHRs include typically a record of the patient’s medical history, diagnoses, treatment, medications, allergies and immunisations, as well as radiology images and laboratory results. The fact that this information is in digital format makes it easier to search, analyse and share.
With telehealth medical services, they are delivered from a distance. This encompasses remote clinical diagnosis and monitoring. Telehealth also includes a wide range of nonclinical functions encompassing prevention, promotion and curative elements of health. It also involves the use of electronics means or methods for healthcare, public health, administration and support, research and health education. Mobile technologies start to support health information and medical practices. The main activity of mHealth is the potential to reach wide geographical areas and the use of portable forms. Mobile health is incorporated into healthcare services such as health call centres or emergency number services and also includes functions such as lifestyle and well-being apps, health promotion and wearable medical devices or sensors. Finally, eLearning in health uses electronic technology and media for training and education that could be used to improve the quality of education and also to increase the access to learning in geographically isolated locations or those locations with insufficient training facilities. This will contribute to increase the number of trained professionals with specialised or general skills.
EUR: Which countries have well developed eHealth initiatives and systems – can you give examples and do these provide models for other countries?
Pascal Garel: HOPE organises a European conference on 16 November 2017 in Dusseldorf, precisely on this issue. But even if we have already identified good practices to be presented during
mHealth can contribute to the empowerment of patients: they could manage their health more actively, live more independently, thanks to self-assessment or remote monitoring solutions
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