European mHealth Hub | Use case of disease diagnosis and treatment

Use case of disease diagnosis and treatment – example of infectious disease

Role this area should play in the mHealth space
mHealth solutions can play important roles in the management of infectious diseases, especially long-term treatments such as for tuberculosis. However, there are also innovations in diagnostics using classical mobile phone hardware components like the camera and microphone. The contributions of mHealth have expanded and become more widely recognised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current challenges and limitations
Diagnostic algorithms that can utilise variable quality inputs from smartphones are improving, but still have accuracy problems. Proximity detection (especially for COVID-19 control) has often not proved to be accurate enough. There is a rapidly expanding market of additional sensors, including lab on a chip, but further pilots are needed to establish which kind of monitoring inputs can help improve diagnostic accuracy, detect deteriorations early and support infection control measures like contact tracing.

Current challenges and limitations

Diagnostic algorithms that can utilise variable quality inputs from smartphones are improving, but still have accuracy problems.
Proximity detection (especially for COVID-19 control) has often not proved to be accurate enough.
There is a rapidly expanding market of additional sensors, including lab on a chip, but further pilots are needed to establish which kind of monitoring inputs can help improve diagnostic accuracy, detect deteriorations early and support infection control measures like contact tracing.

What benefit could this bring to adopters of this innovation?
This area would be of greatest value to persons responsible for managing infectious disease outbreaks or public health programmes, including infection control programs, to help them to understand the possible contributions that mHealth tools could make.
How does it contribute to major EU policy priorities? (e.g. EHDS, COVID-19, DTHC etc.)
This section directly supports Member States and regional health systems with insights into innovations that can support them during the COVD-19 pandemic.

Examples

Infectious disease diagnosis and management (II)

Use case of disease diagnosis and treatment – example of infectious disease

Approach or solution The wide-ranging possibilities for mHealth solutions in the COVID-19 pandemic Organisation or initiative Research publication: Adans-Dester, C. P., Bamberg, S., Bertacchi, F. P., Caulfield, B., Chappie, K., Demarchi, D., ... & Bonato, P. (2020). Can mHealth technology help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?. IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in… ...

Infectious disease diagnosis and management (I)

Use case of disease diagnosis and treatment – example of infectious disease

Approach or solution Review of infectious disease diagnosis and notification use cases, with examples of programmes and solutions to deliver these. Organisation or initiative Research publication: Wood, C. S., Thomas, M. R., Budd, J., Mashamba-Thompson, T. P., Herbst, K., Pillay, D., ... & Stevens, M. M. (2019). Taking connected mobile-health diagnostics of infectious diseases… ...

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What is on the horizon?
Some of the greatest advances that are forthcoming that will revolutionise the role of mobile health solutions in infection management include more accurate location and proximity alerts, lab-on-a-chip developments to enable early and remote diagnosis, which will limit disease spread and enable more rapid treatments, and the use of AI for remote diagnosis and the early detection of deterioration.

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