WHO surveys mHealth in 114 countries

The World Health Organisation has identified the United Kingdom as a leader in mHealth, citing as evidence the NHS Direct helpline and progress in implementing SMS appointment reminder services.

The organisation’s ‘mHealth; New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies’ report, published today, is based on an analysis of 114 countries and their activity in the mobile health market.

It evaluates the adoption of mHealth initiatives, the types of initiatives, status of evaluation and barriers to implementation.

It finds countries in Europe are the most active in mobile health and says their most common activity is the implementation of telephone help lines – in which the UK is a world leader.

“The United Kingdom reported that the National Health Service in England and Scotland operates a no-cost 24 hour health call centre/healthcare telephone help line with nurses who triage patients,” the report says.

NHS Direct has been running for more than a decade, and recently launched a new application for mobile devices.

The reports contrasts the NHS Direct model with Finland, Germany, and Greece, where paid call centres and telephone help lines are an “established business model” for private companies.

However, the Finnish commercial telephone help line is linked to electronic patient records.

The report says non-attendance for hospital outpatient appointments costs the UK £790m per year.

As a result, “the use of mobile devices to send appointment reminders is becoming more common,” it adds.

On a global level, 71% of high income countries have reported the existence of appointment reminder services.

The report says mobile telemedicine and emergency toll-free services are the next most common activities being undertaken in mHealth.

Meanwhile, health surveys conducted through mobile, surveillance, raising awareness, and decision support were found to be the least common services being implemented.

The use of mobile technologies to enhance patient care, such as point-of-care data input, are becoming more prevalent, with 47% of countries in the European region reporting such initiatives.

However, the report finds that integrating mobile technologies in order to create and/or access electronic medical records is “moderate”. The European region had the highest level of integration, with 47% of countries reporting this activity.

“In the European region, reported implementations included access to EMR at point of care, either in a primary health care clinic, hospital or in the home during a visit by a nurse or midwife.”

The most significant barriers to implementation of mHealth initiatives worldwide include lack of prioritisation, knowledge and government policy.

The WHO says the results show increased guidance and information are needed to help align mHealth with broader health priorities and to integrate the systems to strengthen health systems.

In order to achieve this, the organisation has committed to provide information on mHealth initiatives and establish examples of best practice and offer guidance to countries on data security and privacy issues.