Consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital Professor Martin Cowie has been appointed to the European Commission’s working group on m-health. The aim of the group is to develop guidelines on the use of mobile apps in healthcare.
The number of healthcare-related apps has increased significantly over the past couple of years. However, there is some concern about the quality of the data collected by these apps, and in particular the validity and reliability of the results. These issues will be addressed by the working group.
The group will look at the data that health apps collect and process. The guidelines, to be published by the end of 2016, could be used by:
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public authorities
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healthcare providers
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professional and patient associations
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app developers
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other relevant bodies.
Professor Cowie has been a key part of Royal Brompton Hospital’s heart failure service for 15 years. He has been instrumental in various national and international initiatives, including:
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the Health Policy Network
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the British Heart Failure Alliance
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the Global Heart Failure Awareness Programme
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the European Society of Cardiology’s e-health strategy.
Professor Cowie also advises the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on heart failure – and currently sits on the guideline committee for chronic heart failure, with new guidance due to be issued to the NHS in early 2017.