Press Releases

Arlington, VA (July 3, 2014) – The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the leading association representing the manufacturers and suppliers of high-tech communications networks, today submitted comments to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology to provide guidance on unlocking the potential of mobile health (mHealth) in the European Union (EU).

In its comments, TIA urged the EU to enhance the use of mHealth through the following:

• International cooperation;
• Significant engagement with global industry;
• Reliance on voluntary, open, and consensus-based standards; and,
• Avoidance of policies that would put governments in a position to determine the future design and development of technology.

TIA also provided clinical evidence which demonstrates how mHealth information and communications technology (ICT) holds great potential to curb health care costs, both in Europe and globally.

TIA’s filing specifically described how the digitization of health care is a major growth area for “machine-to-machine” (M2M) communications that enable the timely sharing of patient-generated health data (PGHD). TIA then outlined direct societal benefits provided by enhanced health ICT M2M communications, including:

• Providing hospitals with the location of critical mobile equipment;
• Reducing the time it takes health care workers to access that equipment in an emergency;
• Increasing the efficiency of emergency services; and,
• Remote monitoring in home settings, among other direct benefits.

All of these benefits are effects that directly correlate with the inclusion of PGHD, particularly via mobile medical applications, when integrated into and allowed by health care systems.

To read TIA’s comments on mHealth in the European Union in its entirety, please click here.