Developing a Framework for Evaluating the Patient Engagement, Quality, and Safety of Mobile Health Applications

Rising ownership of smartphones and tablets across social and demographic groups has made mobile applications, or apps, a potentially promising tool for engaging patients in their health care, particularly those with high health care needs. Through a systematic search of iOS (Apple) and Android app stores and an analysis of apps targeting individuals with chronic illnesses, this issue brief assesses the degree to which apps are likely to be useful in patient engagement efforts. Usefulness was determined based on the following criteria: description of engagement, relevance to the targeted patient population, consumer ratings and reviews, and most recent app update ...

Engaging youth in communities: a framework for promoting adolescent and community health

Health researchers and practitioners increasingly recognise the important role communities play in shaping individual health. Health researchers recognise the role of community factors as causes or determinants of health problems; use community-based methods for understanding complex health issues; and design community-level health solutions. In this commentary, we propose a fourth way to think about the role of communities in individual health by arguing that the community engagement process itself has implications for individual health and strong communities. This topic is especially important during adolescence, a developmental window of opportunity during which individuals need meaningful opportunities to contribute to the world ...

WHO global strategy on people-centred and integrated health services

This interim report, the WHO global strategy on people-centred and integrated health services, presents a compelling case for a people-centred and integrated health services approach, along with a look at the way forward. It is accompanied by the document "People-centred and integrated health services: an overview of the evidence".

WHO’s global survey on assistive technologies

WHO has launched a global survey to gather views on the most necessary and useful assistive technologies such as hearing aids and wheel chairs. The survey will feed into the first ever WHO mandated list of essential assistive technologies, similar to the WHO Essential Medicines List. These practical tools – some low, some higher technologies – are becoming increasingly necessary to the many people in high- and middle-income countries who are living longer due to better healthcare. Similar devices are used by people with disabilities, allowing them to live more autonomously and participate in their communities. This list will represent a tool ...

Framework on integrated, people-centred health services

This Framework proposes five interdependent strategies for health services to become more integrated and people-centred. It calls for reforms to reorient health services, putting individuals, families, carers and communities at their centre, supported by responsive services that better meet their needs and respect their preferences, and that are coordinated both within and beyond the health sector, irrespective of country setting or development status. These reforms also incorporate a human rights approach, enshrining access to health care as a basic right, without distinction of ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability, political belief, and economic or social condition.

This document builds on the ...

The OECD Mental Health and Work Policy Framework - Integrated services for sustainable growth

Mental health is an important driver of labour market outcomes and thus affects economic growth and future development. If labour markets are to function well, it is important that policy makers address the interplay between mental health and work, as they are slowly coming to recognise that they have long neglected an issue that is critical to people’s well-being and for contributing to sustainable economic growth. This report discusses which aspects of mental health and employment interventions must be addressed to push policy making in the right direction, namely: when to intervene, how to intervene or what to do ...

What is person-centered health care?

What is person-centred health care? There are many definitions of person-centred (patient-or client-centred) health care in the literature. The Victorian Department of Human Services (2003) defines person-centred care as ‘treatment and care provided by health services [that] places the person at the centre of their own care and considers the needs of the older person’s carers’. The main features of person-centred health care derived from the literature can be encompassed within the concept of partnership. The overriding message is that person-centred care is about a collaborative and respectful partnership between the service provider and user. The service provider respects ...