China Mobile Health Development White Paper 2015: An Academic Perspective on mHealth Advancement (Bonus Included)

On November 17, the China Center for Mobile Health Innovation (CCmHI) released the “White Paper on the Development of Mobile Health in China 2015.” Professor Anushka Patel, Chief Scientist at The George Institute for Global Health, stated, “The purpose of this report is to provide an academic overview of the implementation and application of mobile health in China, as well as its role in the Chinese healthcare system.”

CCmHI was established in late 2014 as a joint initiative by The George Institute for Global Health (a non-profit medical research organization) and Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™. CCmHI aims to support the development of community healthcare in China and contribute to mobile health innovation in the country.

As the first research project undertaken by CCmHI, researchers searched and evaluated scientific literature on mobile health within China, while also covering government, commercial, and legal aspects, including laws, regulations, rules, and guidelines.

Professor Anushka Patel stated, “With the rapid development of mobile health technologies, this development report will be updated annually, ultimately providing a deeper understanding of the current landscape and future trends of mobile health in China.”

Since the 1980s, China has undergone four rounds of healthcare system reform and achieved remarkable successes. For instance, life expectancy at birth in China was 68 years in 1990, rising to 75.2 years by 2014. However, with the growing burden of chronic diseases, China’s healthcare system continues to face challenges in areas such as equitable access to medical and health services.

Professor Zheng Zhijie, Director of the George Institute for Global Health China and Distinguished Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, stated, “To fully unlock the potential of mobile health, we must first recognize and strive to overcome the barriers and deficiencies inherent in the current system. We continue to employ a strategic approach underpinned by scientific evidence to ensure that mobile health strengthens China’s healthcare system and brings about tangible improvements in public health. We hope that the analysis and recommendations presented in this report will assist Chinese policymakers in enhancing policy planning and implementation, thereby facilitating the broader adoption of mobile health strategies.”

Xu Dong, a researcher and one of the report’s primary authors, stated that the report focuses on an academic perspective to outline the current state of mobile health development within China’s healthcare system.

Mobile health (mHealth) has various definitions, including “the use of mobile communication and network technologies for healthcare” or “the provision of medical and public health services using mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices.” This report adopts a narrower definition of mHealth:This primarily refers to products and services that leverage the voice and data capabilities of mobile devices—particularly smartphones and tablets—to improve individual or population health. The primary function of these mobile devices is communication, with health promotion serving as an extended capability. The functionalities of mobile devices are extensive, encompassing voice calls, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), web browsing, and various mobile applications (apps), while supporting multiple operating systems and a wide array of sensors.

This report examines and analyzes the role of mobile health within China’s current healthcare system. As scientific research is a major source of innovation, the report provides a systematic review of academic literature on mobile health in China. Furthermore, it systematically summarizes the involvement of the Chinese government and enterprises in the mobile health sector, as well as the legal and regulatory frameworks closely related to mobile health.

The main findings of the report are summarized as follows:

• As mobile health activities continue to expand, the relevant regulatory framework is also evolving; however, there remains an urgent need to reform laws and regulations that still exhibit gaps.

• To address China’s evolving disease burden, mobile health initiatives across government, academia, and the commercial sector are expanding rapidly.

• Currently, mobile health capabilities that can strengthen China’s existing healthcare system remain relatively limited.

• More work is needed to address health service equity, particularly between urban and rural areas, through mobile health.

• Existing scientific research on mobile health is insufficient in scale and design to provide adequate evidence for whether mobile health can serve as a sustainable healthcare solution.

The Chinese government has identified and begun to address some of the aforementioned issues, such as strengthening the regulatory environment for mobile health. In the final section of this report, researchers propose four recommendations aimed at fostering a positive impact of mobile health innovations on the healthcare system, with the ultimate goal of promoting greater health and well-being among the population.

The recommendations proposed in the report include:

• Continuously reform and improve policies and regulations closely related to mobile health;

• In the healthcare system, promote and guide the innovation and application of future mobile health;

• Address disparities in health service equity through targeted mobile health innovation solutions, and ensure that the widespread adoption of such targeted mobile health innovations does not further exacerbate inequities in health service access.

• Promote the development of academic research in mobile health, providing robust evidence for creating scalable and sustainable healthcare models.

To read the full report, please follow the VCBeat WeChat account (WeChat ID: vcbeat) and reply with “White Paper” to instantly receive the complete Chinese and English versions of the “2015 White Paper on the Development of China’s Mobile Health Industry.”