Technological health solutions at the Mobile World Congress: our conclusions

We at the Institut de la Màcula are always watching out for technological advances that we can apply. There are three main reasons for this: to remain at the cutting edge of research in our specialties; to improve the treatments we give to our patients; and to provide patients with tools that improve their state of health and make them feel better. This prompts us to explore and experiment with new technologies. The Mobile World Congress, held last week in Barcelona, brought to our door new technological solutions in the area of mobile health applications.

With regard to smartphone apps it is clear to us that:

• We doctors must grow accustomed to the fact that patients like to use these devices. They are on the market and they are useful: we carry them in our pockets. Accordingly, it seems necessary for practitioners to acquire knowledge about them. This will allow them to recommend the ones that have been tested and have demonstrated their reliability. We at the Institut add our voice to those who demand that health apps carry some form of accreditation with regard to their effectiveness and believe that they should be assessed in a similar way to medicines.
• A smartphone can be a highly valuable tool that provides information on patients’ habits if they wish. These patients should be aware of this, and also doctors, who need to start to make use of the data collected by the devices that serve each person almost spontaneously. These parameters and the practitioner’s knowledge provide quite an accurate idea of the person’s state of health, allow him/her to be monitored and even encouraged to achieve aims related to health and lifestyle —weight watching, physical activity etc.
• We should recognise the value of the information collected both by smartphones and the apps they have installed —of the sports coaching, health and active lifestyle type- and protect them from spurious uses. This information may be highly sensitive and the user should be aware of where and when it is going and what is done with it.

Technological innovation and medical research are very valuable strategic allies to continue advancing with efficiency and rigour. They also continue the quest for therapeutic responses tailored to the challenges created by diseases that today are considered incurable.