mHealth

This article was originally published on our sister blog InsidePrivacy

May 2015 saw a number of developments in the EU mHealth sector worthy of a brief mention.  The European Commission announced that it would work on new guidance for mHealth apps, despite the European Data Protection Supervisor and British Standards Institution publishing their own just weeks earlier.  In parallel, the French data protection authority announced a possible crackdown on mHealth app non-compliance with European data protection legislation.  This post briefly summarizes these developments.
Continue Reading May 2015 EU mHealth Round-Up

Article originally posted on our sister blog InsidePrivacy

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (Working Party), an independent EU advisory body on data protection and privacy, responded to a request from the European Commission made in the framework of the Commission’s  mHealth initiative to clarify the definition of data concerning health in relation to lifestyle and wellbeing apps.  (See more here, and here for our blog post on the European Commission’s Summary Report of the mHealth consultation.)

In its latest paper on health data in apps and devices, the Working Party supports a broad definition of health data, distinguishing the following three categories of health data:

  1. The data are inherently/clearly medical data, especially those generated in a professional, medical context.
  2. The data are raw sensor data that can be used in itself or in combination with other data to draw a conclusion about the actual health status or health risk of a person.
  3. Conclusions are drawn about a person’s health status or health risk (irrespective of whether these conclusions are accurate, legitimate or otherwise adequate or not).
    Continue Reading Article 29 Working Party Clarifies Scope of Health Data in Apps and Devices

 This post originally appeared on our sister blog, Covington eHealth.

The European Commission has finally published its summary of 211 responses to its mobile health (“mHealth”) consultation. The summary and original responses to the consultation have been made available on the Commission’s website at https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/summary-report-public-consultation-green-paper-mobile-health
Continue Reading Summary Report of European Commission’s mHealth Consultation Published

By Helena Marttila-Bridge and Oliver Grazebrook

In recent years healthcare providers around the world have been looking into mobile health or “mHealth” solutions to increase productivity and reduce costs.  Examples of mHealth practices include the increased use of mobile devices by doctors and nurses to access and transmit patient health data and the use of mobile health apps by patients.

Earlier this year, the NHS published a report on mHealth, which shows the potential savings that could be achieved through the widespread adoption of mHealth applications.  According to the report, the trial use of mobile technology by a selection of UK hospitals showed an “improvement in general communication, improved access to clinical information and improved access to IT equipment.”  Importantly, users also showed a greater confidence in the security of the health data and an improvement in clinical safety due to the ready availability of up to date data.
Continue Reading The Rise of mHealth and Privacy Considerations