E-HEALTH - E-SANTE - PHARMAGEEK

Every year, more than 3 million people in Europe experience a heart attack. For half of them, this is not the first time. Most of these recurrent heart attacks can be prevented by improving the lifestyle after the first heart attack, for which patients are often offered cardiac rehabilitation. These programs consist of exercise and lifestyle recommendations. Cardiac rehabilitation is provided at specialized centers.
 
According to estimates, if all cardiac patients were to undergo cardiac rehabilitation, the mortality from myocardial infarctions could fall by 26 percent and hospital admissions by more than 30 percent. Despite these benefits, less than half of cardiac patients receive cardiac rehabilitation. This lack of participation is mainly due the distance to the cardiac rehabilitation centers, which patients experience as being too far. There are also many objections to the limited possibilities for taking an individualized program.
 
Research has shown that an internet-based rehabilitation program can achieve the same results as rehabilitation at a center. An e-health application for cardiac rehabilitation could therefore eliminate many obstacles for patients.

However, such an application is not yet available.

With Eurostar funding of € 1.9 million, a European consortium of researchers and companies will create CaRe, a mobile platform for cardiac rehabilitation.

Maria Hopman is creating this e-health program for cardiac rehabilitation together with a consortium of Danish and Swiss companies. Starting in 2021, the program will be available for physiotherapists and hospitals in Europe.

more at https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/news/2018/major-grant-for-development-of-e-health-program-for-cardiac-rehabilitation

Estonia and Finland will start exchanging digital prescriptions at the end of the year, in a groundbreaking move that Estonian Health Minister Riina Sikkut said she hoped other EU countries will follow.

Speaking to EURACTIV.com on the sidelines of the European Health Forum in Gastein, Austria, Sikkut said that in Estonia, it is common practice for healthcare professionals to use the e-health system to exchange patient medical records.

“But it is also important for people who have a need for healthcare services abroad to have his or her health data available to a doctor, nurse or a pharmacist so that they could also provide quality healthcare services and continuity of care,” she said.

The cross-border flow of data has taken centre stage in the discussion in Brussels. Right now, when citizens move to another EU member state, their healthcare data is in fact simply “lost”.

Advocates of the digitisation of healthcare say data mobility, or the “5th freedom”, in the EU could unlock the potential of innovation in the sector and make EU patients’ lives easier.

Estonia is known for its digitisation push in all sectors, and during its EU Presidency (July-December 2017), it took significant steps to create a “coalition of the willing” of EU member states to speed up healthcare data mobility in Europe.

So far the internet of things hasn’t made much headway into patient care in the medical setting, but consumers are buying wellness devices for a variety of reasons. Will the medical world embrace that data?

The intersection of healthcare and connected devices was thrown into high relief these last few weeks as both Apple and Samsung unveiled ecosystems to take consumer health data and turn it into actionable intelligence.

But this week’s guests at the Weekly podacst at GigaOm are confident that as advanced as consumer-grade consumer grade health devices get, they won’t become something doctors are hot on for years to come — if ever.

In this week’s podcast Stacey Higginbotham discusses medical connected devices and where it may meet the consumer with Rick Valencia from Qualcomm Life. Will doctor’s prescribe our apps or devices? 

 Listen to the podcast at  http://soundcloud.com/gigaom-internet-of-things  Original article at http://gigaom.com/2014/06/09/digital-health-is-going-to-need-medical-approval-and-a-great-ui/ ;

Commonwealth Fund researchers analyzed data from surveys of primary care physicians conducted in 2009 and 2012 to check on the progress of health IT adoption.

Adoption of health information technology (HIT) by physician practices rose considerably from 2009 to 2012, yet solo physicians lag practices of 20 or more and certain functions—like electronically exchanging information with other physicians—have been adopted by only a minority of providers. Physicians who are part of an integrated delivery system, share resources with other practices, and are eligible for financial incentives, have higher rates of HIT adoption.

Doctors are using HIT in greater numbers, spurred on in part by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, which provided billions to help build a national HIT infrastructure. Commonwealth Fund researchers analyzed data from surveys of primary care physicians conducted in 2009 and 2012 to check on the progress of HIT adoption and to see how certain factors—like being part of an integrated health system or using shared technical assistance programs—can influence technology take-up.

Implications of integrating technology:

Under increasing pressure to keep costs down, providers should promote technologies that help manage patients’ health outside of costly care settings.

Shouldering more of their medical costs, health-conscious consumers may be more willing to pay for mobile and other technologies to help manage their health.

Drug and device companies must understand consumer behavior and satisfaction in the social media era.

Reimbursing non-traditional, mobile-enabled therapies may allow insurers to reduce medical costs.

Personalized medicine is the tailoring of a medical treatment to the individual characteristics, needs and preferences of a patient. Many recent advances involve using a patient's genetic information to guide his or her treatment.

Developing a truly personalized approach to patient care will require fundamental advances in the understanding of the biological, anatomical and physiological mechanisms that underlie disease, and how they are affected by environmental, genetic, social and cultural factors.

To describe its unique responsibilities and its efforts in facilitating the advancement of personalized medicine, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a new report entitled "Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine: FDA's Role in a New Era of Medical Product Development