mHealth: New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies
Global Observatory for eHealth series - Volume 3.
Only five years ago who would have imagined that today a woman in sub-Saharan Africa could use a mobile phone to access health information essential to bringing her pregnancy safely to term? Mobile phones are now the most widely used communication technology in the world. They continue to spread at an exponential rate - particularly in developing countries. This expansion provides unprecedented opportunities to apply mobile technology for health.
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eHealth Benchmarking III Final Report
At this early stage of the twenty-first century, Europe's health systems and services are under extreme pressure. It is vital to discover how acute hospitals use eHealth services today. To understand this use may enable hospital systems to handle future challenges. Helping to develop and test a robust survey instrument that can uncover such information is an important step in policy terms and in the development of methodologies.
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Enabling Smart Integrated Care: Recommendations for Fostering Greater Interoperability of Personal Health Systems
The final goal of promoting interoperability in general, and for Personal Health Systems (PHS) in particular, is to contribute to integrated care. This will be supported through comprehensive, easy and collaborative access to and sharing of a patient's health data for all authorised health professionals, family carers and ultimately the patient itself. Thus they will gain managed access to essential health information about patients, subject to the patients' consent.
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European Countries on their Journey Towards National eHealth Infrastructures
Since the publication of the European Commission's (EC) eHealth Action Plan in 2004, eHealth has gained significant momentum across Europe. "European countries on their journey towards national eHealth infrastructures - evidence of progress and recommendations for cooperative actions" is the title of a just released overview and synthesis report on eHealth in Europe. In addition, more than 30 individual reports detailing policy actions and deployment of eHealth applications in Member States and other European countries are available there as well.
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Telemedicine Opportunities and Developments in Member States
Global Observatory for eHealth series - Volume 2.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have great potential to address some of the challenges faced by both developed and developing countries in providing accessible, costeffective, high-quality health care services. Telemedicine uses ICTs to overcome geographical barriers, and increase access to health care services. This is particularly beneficial for rural and underserved communities in developing countries - groups that traditionally suffer from lack of access to health care.
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