The Mobility Master Plan: mHealth solutions
3 de febrer de 2015
The talks given by the director of the Foundation, Francesc García Cuyàs, and Jordi Domínguez, head of the Organisation Area of the Department of Social Welfare and Family, brought those attending up-to-date on the Mobility Master Plan, which was described by García Cuyàs as a “facilitating, administering and creative” instrument. Furthermore, Joan Cornet, director of the mHealth Competence Centerof the Mobile World Capital, presented Claus B. Nielsen, Business Development Manager in Continua Health Alliance, who talked about the reality of mHealth in Denmark.
In this sense, in order to fulfil its mission, the Foundation is developing two principal projects as part of the Mobility Master Plan, which Francesc García Cuyàs explains in the video-interview of this month’s issue of the FlashTicSalut: the digital i-SISS.Cat i Salut, amongst whose objectives he highlights “the enhancement of mobility in the health and social sector” and “the definition of innovative standards and models for mobility to allow users to communicate with the professionals and with the social health systems”.
The i-SISS.Cat is a model of government focused on the territory which wagers on integration, interoperability and self-management; a common reference model (“which is not the same as a single model”, García Cuyàs stresses), with capacity to interoperate, to manage with citizens and to analyse and manage systems. The i-SISS.Cat is a model which seeks to respect the management autonomy of the health provider systems and to include the information services from the outset.
For its part, Digital health is the process of transforming the healthcare system through the use of ICTs. The aim of this project is to integrate ICTs in the strategy of the Health Plan 2016-2020 through a participative process of global participation.
Jordi Domínguez then explained the objectives and benefits that the Mobility Master Plan puts forward for the Department of Social Welfare and Family and defended that the present system “has become obsolete”. This strategy, which was a commission of the Department of Social Welfare and Family, has been developed by the Fundació TicSalut in cooperation with the Mobile World Capital foundation with the objective of “creating solutions and services through mobile systems in order to improve and personalise the health and social welfare of citizens”.
From the Welfare Department, the Plan seeks to be beneficial above all for the priority groups (such as the dependent or disabled and the elderly), and to directly affect the habits and behaviour which contribute to improving people’s lives. Examples might be given in relation to social welfare (e.g.: single-parent family ticket, disabled card), personal autonomy (through mobility and monitoring) or the promotion of personal welfare (health prevention).
Joan Cornet, a collaborator with the Foundation from the Mobile World Capital, described his mission as that of "accelerating" these processes of mobility, standards, interoperability and financing, so that they might not take years to be materialised.
When presenting the following speaker, Cornet stressed the importance of creating strategies that would nurture “collaboration between industry and social sector”, as we are in stage of collaboration and “nobody can do anything alone any longer”. After this, Claus B. Nielsen talked about the difficulties presented by the restructuring of the present healthcare system and the challenges that have to be overcome (system interoperability, addressing users’ real needs…).
Nielsen also highlighted the three sides where mHealth is more beneficial: healthy ageing, the management of chronic disease and prevention through exercise. With these benefits in mind, Nielsen explained his personal experience both with wearable technology to allow him to control his own exercise and vital constants, and the management of type 1 diabetes, which his son suffers from.
The greatest challenge, Nielsen said, is interoperability; finding a way in which "the technology we wear", such as mobile phones, "might form part of the healthcare system". We are amidst a revolution but, unfortunately, the "market does not yet understand health needs".
With all of this, it is becoming more and more clear that a framework to coordinate and develop the implementation of these technologies in order to improve personal health is necessary. Similarly it is also clearer that health does not only depend on physical well-being, but also, as Domínguez says, mental and social well-being. Therefore, in the words of the president of the Foundation, the Mobility Master Plan “must rationally combine the functions of the health services and technology”.
