In recent years, the debate about what we should do with health apps has centred around accreditation, certification or assessment. At the same time, multiple lists of health apps recommended by a range of known and recognised initiatives have been drawn up.
An example of this would be the iSYScore2017 ranking of the Fundació iSYS which was presented in the context of the CAMFiC a few weeks ago.
In this context, and with the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona in full swing, we can ask ourselves what role a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agency has when considering mHealth.
There is a reality which we cannot evade. Any health intervention needs to be based on evidence, on knowledge of the highest quality at hand, and must be evaluated.
This cannot be done by turning our backs on the real world or innovation. A health app is a tool to carry out a health intervention and so health apps need to be seen as just another intervention, but of course, with some characteristics of their own which will mean there is an extra demand placed on one and all.
Technologists, HTA experts, professionals and citizens have the opportunity to understand each other if we want to be facilitators of recommending safe apps in health. We are not talking about initiatives that can be developed from one sector only and it is not only about apps.
Now more than ever, we need to be flexible and work from a multidisciplinary position. We already talk about co-creation and co-design; quite simply, of co-produced mHealth initiatives based on the expertise of multiple agents including, obviously, citizens.
AQuAS is participating in the assessment of several mHealth projects financed by the European Commission. The PEGASO project stands out, centred on promoting healthy lifestyles among adolescents, and DECIPHER, as an integral solution to facilitate the geographical mobility of patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes type 2 and m-resist, centred on schizophrenia and patients resistant to treatment.
We are faced with the challenge of integrating totally different fields such as the language of technologists and developers; the speed of innovation and the culture of assessment. In addition, this needs to be done without losing sight of the key role of scientific societies and the different points of view of health professionals and end users.
We know there is a lot of work to be done. Technologists and experts in health technology assessment, respectively, have the opportunity to learn a lot from each other. It is about sharing knowledge and expertise to facilitate, ultimately, health tools for citizens and professionals, which have been assessed, are based on evidence, are safe and reliable and have a strong collaborative component.
Post written by Toni Dedéu (@Toni_Dedéu) and Elisa Puigdomènech.