Mobile health solutions for empowered, health-conscious individuals and patients

Mobile health monitoring is a growing market and has the potential to revolutionize our wellness and healthcare and to improve health outcomes and care processes. Usually, healthcare providers and ospitals keep and maintain patient’s electronic health records. However it is becoming more common that patients not only request access to their health data but also want to participate in their health improvement. Therefore health-conscious people and patients must be empowered and engaged in health self-management through personal monitoring devices and services. Currently, the development of mobile health solutions faces several challenges due to lacking technical interoperability, various operating systems and privacy issues. This paper presents a telemonitoring system, which facilitates the development of mobile health applications for several platforms, and patient-centered solutions that support health-conscious individuals and patients in easily monitoring their vital signs, to manage their health status and cooperate with physicians. The telemonitoring system and the mobile health solutions are implemented in consideration of interoperability issues, thus adhering to standards suggested by Continua Health Alliance and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise. The systems are currently tested in an entire region in Upper Austria.