A rollout of mobile healthcare (mHealth) technology across the EU could help save as much as €99 billion in healthcare costs by 2017, according to the findings of a new report by GSMA, a grouping of mobile technology stakeholders, and PwC, with ageing populations and rising numbers of people suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes creating hardships for European governments.
In September of last year, another PwC report highlighted the importance for Malta of investing in health information technology (eHealth), saying that a good managerial and technological support system can alleviate work pressures of this labour intensive industry.
It also referred to mHealth, observing: “Increasingly ubiquitous and powerful mobile technology holds the potential to address long-standing issues in healthcare provision. If the mobile revolution has the same effect in health care as it has had in other industries – such as music and banking – it will transform the way patients interact with their doctors and manage their health, and will help to address the urgent need for health care that is better, faster, less expensive and more accessible.”
Currently, between 70 and 80 per cent of EU healthcare budgets are spent on treating chronic conditions – which require constant care and reduce the available workforce.
These challenges will survive the current economic downturn and cannot be kicked into the long grass. The question is how cash-strapped governments can make better use of a diminishing pool of healthcare workers and smaller budgets to deliver the kind of healthcare Europeans need and expect.
That’s why eHealth – the application of information and communication technologies to healthcare systems – is rightly being explored as a solution to some of these challenges.
The savings being mentioned would be achieved, for example, through reducing care costs for chronic diseases and freeing up doctors’ time with better access to data.
Significantly, the savings figure is the amount reached after taking into account the €6.2bn cost of funding the 211,000 jobs needed for mHealth deployment.
In addition, the report says mHealth could save an additional 5.9 billion work hours from avoided absenteeism and early retirements.
Tackling chronic diseases requires a budget of €700 billion per year across the EU, and policy makers agree that new solutions must be found to tackle these ailments as they become even more prevalent.
The GSMA/PWC report identifies mHealth as particularly helpful for early diagnosis in this area, and providing at-home monitoring and treatment. Diabetics, for example, who make up as many as one in 10 of the population, can send blood readings from their mobile device to a remote doctor for analysis, which helps to spot issues early.
Moreover, innovative mobile applications, such as Cellnovo can analyse the blood readings to immediately advise individuals on adjusting their diet, activity levels or insulin.
The European Commission has recognised the potential of mHealth, and is considering mHealth solutions in its reviews of the medical device directive and data protection directive.
And following the recommendation of the EU’s eHealth task force, the commission has committed to issuing a mHealth green paper by 2014, which will set out how quality and transparency can be established in the mHealth sector.
The European Commission’s action plan
European Commissioners Tonio Borg and Neelie Kroes recently unveiled the EU’s Action Plan to address barriers to the full use of digital solutions in Europe’s healthcare systems.
The goal is to improve healthcare for the benefit of patients, give patients more control of their care and reduce costs. While patients and health professionals are enthusiastically using telehealth solutions, and millions of Europeans have downloaded smartphone apps to keep track of their health and wellbeing, digital healthcare has yet to reap its great potential to improve healthcare and generate efficiency savings.
eHealth entails the use of digital tools and services for health and covers the interaction between patients and health-service providers, institution-to-institution transmission of data, or peer-to-peer communication between patients and/or health professionals. Examples include health information networks, electronic health records, telemedicine services, wearable and portable personal health systems and many other information and communication technology (ICT)-based tools assisting disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow up.
Using ICT based tools and systems gives patients more information and more involvement in their healthcare, they improve access to health advice and treatment and can make national healthcare systems more efficient.
For example, the Danish Health Data Network provides fast and efficient communication between patients, general practitioners and social care professionals. These streamlined services for patients and healthcare workers have led to cumulative savings of $120 million a year. The Danish information system is cited by several studies to be the most efficient in the world, saving doctors on average 50 minutes per day usually spent on administrative work.
In Malta, the myHealth service is offering access to more medical examination results. Those using the service have access to, among others, case summaries of Mater Dei Hospital, the names of doctors allowed to operate in Malta, to whom their medical history can be passed via myHealth, and reports about all digital examinations of X-rays, CT scans, MRI, and ultrasound which are held in government hospitals and clinics.
A patient can choose the doctor or doctors from the list who would then have access to all the medical information. myHealth was launched last January. National coordinator Hugo Agius Muscat said the first thing a patient has to do is register for an e-id, after which the patient can access the site and choose the doctor from the list of those who can practise in Malta.
In Italy, overall savings from the introduction of ICTs in the Health Sector are estimated to be around 11.7 per cent of national health expenditure (ie €12.4 billion). Savings from digital prescriptions alone are estimated to be around €2 billion.
A recent study across The Netherlands, the UK and Germany showed that introducing home telemonitoring systems could improve survival rates by 15 per cent, bring a 26 per cent reduction in hospital days per patient and make 10 per cent overall cost savings through nurse telephone support.
The Action Plan attempts to increase the pace of change and improvement in healthcare by clarifying areas of legal uncertainty; improving interoperability between systems; increasing awareness and skills among patients and healthcare professionals; putting patients at the centre with initiatives related to personal health management and supporting research into personalised medicine; and ensuring free legal advice for start-up eHealth businesses.
The Commission has also committed itself to issuing an mHealth (Mobile Health) Green Paper by 2014 addressing quality and transparency issues.
Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg said: “eHealth solutions can deliver high quality, patient-centric, healthcare to our citizens. eHealth brings healthcare closer to people and improves health systems’ efficiency. The Action Plan will help turn the eHealth potential into better care for our citizens. The eHealth Network under the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive channels our joint commitment to find interoperable solutions at EU level.”
Members of the new eHealth Network, established by the Cross-border Healthcare Directive, will help implement the Action Plan and provide a direct link to the national healthcare authorities and government departments.
Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, added: “Europe’s healthcare systems aren’t yet broken, but the cracks are beginning to show. It’s time to give this 20th-century model a health check. The new European eHealth Action Plan sets out how we can bring digital benefits to healthcare and lift the barriers to smarter, safer, patient-centred health services”.
For more information visit www.myhealth.gov.mt or the EU’s eHealth website at ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/european-ehealth-policy