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| Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon and wife Yoo Soon-taek meet a TB patient during their visit the Institute of Respiratory Medicine. [Photo Credit: UN/Debebe] |
Washington: In an effort to tackle non-communicable illnesses such as
diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases, two
United Nations agencies on Wednesday launched a new initiative called ‘m-Health’
to use mobile technology, particularly text messaging and applications in a
view to tackle these illness.
“Technological
innovations are changing the landscape of disease prevention and control. The
widespread availability of mobile technology, including in many of the least
developed countries, is an exceptional opportunity to expand the use of
e-health,” said the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), Hamadoun I. Touré.
Through the initiative, the ITU and the World Health Organisation
(WHO) will provide evidence-based and operational guidance to encourage
partners worldwide, especially governments, to implement m-Health interventions
to address prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and
their common risk factors – tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity
and the harmful use of alcohol.
Non-communicable diseases are some of the leading causes of
death and disease in both developed countries and emerging economies alike,
according to a news release issued by the agencies. They dominate health care
needs and expenditures in most developed as well as most low- and middle-income
countries.
Of the 57 million deaths globally, NCDs contribute to an
estimated 36 million deaths every year, including 14 million people dying
between the ages of 30 and 70. Using mobile telephone technology, m-Health
practices can help save lives, reduce illness and disability, and reduce
healthcare costs significantly.
The initiative will build on current projects, existing
health systems and platforms, and will involve partnerships between
governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector.
“WHO is already using mobile devices to carry out surveillance
of non-communicable diseases and their risk factors,” said WHO’s Assistant
Director-General for Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, Oleg
Chestnov.
“For example, the Global Adult Tobacco Surveillance system
has used mobile phones to capture data on tobacco use in 17 countries –
covering over half of the world’s population. This experience of running
population-scale mobile projects will be vital to the initiative,” he stated.
WHO and ITU member countries are also testing mobile
solutions for NCDs – ranging from providing assistance to help people quit
tobacco, helping people increase their activity levels, eating more healthily
and helping patients with non-communicable diseases better manage their
conditions. All of these experiences will feed into the new initiative.
The new initiative will initially run for a four-year period
and focus on prevention, treatment and enforcement to control non-communicable
diseases.
It is currently being discussed in Dubai at ITU Telecom
World 2012, where leaders and pioneers in the corporate, research and academic
sectors are meeting with high-ranking policy-makers and regulators, with the
aim of sharing ideas on the future of global telecommunications.