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QUESTIONSANDANSWERS DR. SVEN ROHTE


Chief Commercial Officer at Daman


mHealth is a new and booming trend in the healthcare industry, and is set to become a trillion dollar industry allowing the delivery of better healthcare whilst positively impacting the bottom line across the range of stakeholders in the healthcare industry.


Q. Why should delegates attend the m+ A. We see the m+


Health Conference? Health Conference as a good platform to discuss


upcoming trends and developments in the mobile technology area of the healthcare sector, in addition to reviewing the critical issues and challenges for deploying such technology. The list of confirmed speakers shows a good participation from different players within the industry, and the sessions themselves are quite interesting, especially for those of us who are looking to use new electronic means to engage with our audience.


Q. How is the implementation of mHealth different in the Middle East than the West, are there any cultural differences? A. That’s an interesting question. Research has shown that mHealth implementation vary in different countries within the same region. For example, implementation levels in Japan are much lower when compared to South Korea, despite being located in the same region. This tells us that a localized approach for each country is the probably the most suitable strategy. Formulating such strategy depends on several factors including the quality of healthcare infrastructure, accessibility to healthcare services, the state of the local economy and education levels. For example, in Germany, you can find two general medical practitioners per town so mHealth is less relevant as compared to say, in India, where people in several towns need to travel long distances to see a doctor. However, research corroborates this theory; it confirmed that India has higher levels of implementation of mHealth than some western countries. So


012 HOSPITAL BUILD & INFRASTRUCTURE mHEALTH SUPPLEMENT 2012


implementation can vary both within as well as between regions. There can even be difference in implementation levels between different areas of the same country; in general, rural populations would appreciate mHealth a lot more than sophisticated urban centers with higher accessibility to healthcare services. Looking at these indictors, we can assume that culture has little influence on mHealth implementation, as healthcare is a necessity across societies. What can influence implementation, are education levels and quality of the mHealth services on offer, which is what we have been noticing. Less educated people would find it difficult to explain symptoms over the phone, for example. The key to unlocking the full potential of mHealth is really how convenient and effective it can be, given the local context.


Q. How do you see mHealth moving forward? A. From an insurance company’s point of view, mHealth is yet to demonstrate feasibility, especially with the complexity of the processes we deal with health insurance underwriting. We see it developing, but in a slow and progressive manner. There is no doubt that mobile health is a great concept that deserves attention. However, the results it will show will depend on multiple factors. From what we have seen in the UAE, remote patient monitoring is the only application of mHealth that has the potential to directly benefit insurance companies. In the future, I expect mobile electronic patient files to become popular. However, I don’t see this happening in the immediate future as concerns about security of file transfer and data protection are still being addressed. +


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