WMA _4.4 mHealth_final

THE WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
L’ASSOCIATION MEDICALE MONDIALE, INC
ASOCIACION MEDICA MUNDIAL, INC
Centre International de Bureaux FEIN : 13-2566243
Immeuble A “Keynes” Website : www.wma.net Postal Address :
13, chemin du Levant Telephone : (33) 4 50 40 75 75 Boîte Postale 63
01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Fax : (33) 4 50 40 59 37 01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Cedex
France E-mail address : wma@wma.net France
22 January 2018
142nd
WHO Executive Board Meeting , item 4.4 mHealth use of appropriate digital technologies
for public health
Honourable Chairperson, Distinguished Delegates,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the World Medical Association, which
represents 9 million physicians around the world.
The WMA welcomes the Director General’s report on mHealth.
We acknowledge that mHealth has the potential to supplement and further develop existing
healthcare services and facilitate access to healthcare, improve patient self-management,
enable electronic interactions between patients and their physicians.
Technological developments and their increasing affordability led to an exponential increase
in the number and variety of mHealth services in use developed and developing countries.
At the same time, this rapidly evolving sector remains largely unregulated and could have
potential safety, quality and privacy implications. In order to still deliver high quality of care
it is of utmost importance to put an emphasize on the education of health professionals,
especially in regard to the shortage of health professionals.
As Physicians, we would like to stress the following;
-The WHO and member nations need to ensure that there are sufficient policies and
safeguards to regulate and secure the collection, storage, protection and processing of data
of mHealth users and assure the privacy and confidentially rights of them. We would like to
refer to the WMA Declaration of Taipei on health data and biobanks.
– mHealth technologies used for services which require the medical expertise of physicians,
such as SMS services providing advice to pregnant women or wearable sensors to monitor
chronic conditions such as diabetes, frequently meet the definition of a medical device and
should be subject to risk-based oversight and regulation with all its implications.
– The WMA enjoins the WHO to note the significant regional and demographic variations in
the potential use and benefits of mHealth. The monitoring and evaluation of mHealth should
be implemented carefully to avoid inequity of access to these technologies.
Thank you for your kind attention.