The EU-funded Trillium-II project is joining forces with the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) to take the vision of the electronic patient summary as window to a patient’s health information further and to promote mHealth; The ESH introduces a smartphone app especially designed for people with hypertension. “Apps can help ‘connecting the dots’ for patient summaries, meaning collecting and presenting carefully selected recorded health information”, eHealth experts say.
At the 27th European Meeting on Hypertension and Cardiovascular Protection on June 16-19 in Milan, the Trillium-II initiative, represented by scientific coordinator Catherine Chronaki, and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH), represented by its chairman Professor Enrico Agabiti Rosei, signed a memorandum of understanding.
They will cooperate to promote the vision of the patient summary as a window to a patient’s health information. They will be part of a ‘Global Community for the Practice of Health Innovation’: a community of those interested in innovation by adopting and improving patient summary standards. This community is currently being established by the Trillium-II project and anyone will be able to join.
On top of this a joint working group will be launched to elaborate, in a co-creation spirit, patient summary extensions appropriate for capturing and assessing cardiovascular risk factors.
New hypertension app
The memorandum came at a timely moment, as the ESH is promoting its new ESH CARE app developed under the auspices of the ESH and designed for citizens with hypertension throughout Europe and globally. The app is currently being translated into more than 12 languages.
Catherine Chronaki, scientific coordinator of Trillium-II project and Secretary General of HL7, thanked the president of the ESH and Professor Gianfranco Parati, a fellow member of the Nucleus of the eCardiology WG of European Society of Cardiology that advocated this synergy. Chronaki sees a link between apps and the way the international patient summary standard can help ‘connecting the dots’ for healthcare professionals, i.e. collecting and presenting carefully selected recorded health information.
She said: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the trust conveyed in this agreement. It signifies a unique opportunity for every person at risk of hypertension to make informed decisions about their health and for health professionals to nudge our communities toward healthier behaviours. I am looking forward to increase the impact of International Patient Summary standards in this area and help connect, assess and validate the ESH CARE app in health systems around the globe.”
Support healthcare professionals important for mHealth use
Terje Peetso, head of sector for policy at the Unit of eHealth, Wellbeing and Ageing of DG CONNECT (European Commission), welcomed the cooperation: “Support of healthcare professionals is very important for the deployment of health apps. Linking them to electronic health records is adding value both to personal and population health.”
Prof. Anne Moen of the University of Oslo and immediate past Chair of the European Federation of Health informatics (EFMI) also highlighted the importance of such synergies: “Sharing examples of mHealth initiatives and exploring collaboration with professional societies such as the European Society for Hypertension is important to further deployment of mHealth solutions that truly assist citizens in their collaboration with their doctor and health providers. The International Patient Summary that includes patient generated data will be one such opportunity.”
The professor herself presented several innovative mHealth solutions developed by members of the EFMI community. Among these apps was APPETITUS, which aims to help ageing Norwegians set up a healthy meal plan and visualise the nutritional value in chosen meals.
Commitment to standards and interoperability
Ain Aaiviksso, chair of the mHealth subgroup of the eHN and deputy secretary general for e-Services and Innovation at the Ministry of Social affairs of the Republic of Estonia, welcomed the initiative and stressed the commitment of the Estonia and the eHealth network to standards and interoperability.
Javier Ferrero Alvarez, Chief Information Office of the Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality, shared their best practices in assessing and validating mobile apps connected to their healthcare infrastructure as a way to advance digital health innovation.
Dr. Alvarez highlighted the important of collaboration for public health authorities: “The Andalusian public health service, through its mHealth strategy, is strongly convinced of the necessity for collaboration with third parties, like professional societies, app developers and pharmaceutical sector, in order to deploy the maximum number and most effective mobile health services to citizens.”
Henrique Martins, president of the Board of SPMS the Chair of the eHealth Member States under the CEN program, shared tangible examples of innovative mHealth solutions incorporating elements of patient summaries in Portugal.
For more information please visit the website of www.trilliumbridge.eu where the presentations of this event will soon be available.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/trillium-ii-project-signs-memorandum-understanding-hypertension-society
