England’s National Health Service arm is setting its sights on bringing care to people that fits "in with the way they live their lives"--and that means bringing the NHS up to speed with the rise of mobile-based care, says Deborah El-Sayed, director of digital and multi-channel.
El-Sayed tells The Guardian that the organization has been behind others when it comes to technology for more than 10 years.
It's time to catch up.
One example of the country moving forward with mHealth is a project led by the west of England academic health science network in partnership with Diabetes UK. They created the Diabetes Digital Coach, which uses software to communicate with wearable sensors to help patients with diabetes manage their condition, the article notes.
At Salford Royal hospital, it's mHealth foundation is based on "a few well-thought-out and correctly aimed interventions," which CIO Rachel Dunscombe tells The Guardian are more useful than "a scattergun introduction of funky toys."
England's National Health Service also earlier this year announced pilot projects in seven locations to test how technology can help monitor people with long-term conditions, FierceMobileHealthcare previously reported. Introducing the trials, NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens said: "Over the next decade, major health gains won't just come from a few 'miracle cures,' but also from combining diverse breakthroughs in fields such as biosensors, medtech and drug discovery, mobile communications and AI computing.
NHS England and its providers, in The Guardian report, point out other advancements being made with mHealth adoption, including the ability to monitor patients’ health, which allows assessment of diet, exercise and drug treatment, and use of a smartphone case product for mobile electrocardiogram capability.
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