mHealth - what is it and do I want it?

There are nearly 100,000 mHealth #apps already available across multiple platforms such as iTunes, Google play, Windows Marketplace, BlackBerry World. The top 20 free sports, fitness and health apps already account for 231 million downloads worldwide. 
By 2017, 3.4 billion people worldwide will own a smartphone and half of them will be using mHealth apps. In 2017, if its potential is fully unlocked, mHealth could save €99 billion in healthcare costs in the EU.
 
The Commission is launching a public consultation on the Green Paper on mobile health, inviting comments on the barriers and issues related to the use of mHealth. Your input will help identify the right way forward to unlock the potential of mobile health in the EU. The Commission also publishes a Staff Working Document on the existing EU legal framework applicable to lifestyle and wellbeing apps, aiming at providing simple guidance to app developers on EU legislation in the field.

The Public consultation on the Commission's Green Paper on mobile health is open until July 2014!

a new Tobacco Products Directive - tobacco must taste as tobacco!!!

The "Tobacco in the EU" info graph shows that 700.000 persons are dying each year due to smoking!

The new Tobacco Products Directive,  replacing  Directive (2001/37/EC), to be applied from May 2015, will lay down rules governing the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products. These include cigarettes, roll your own tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes and herbal products for smoking.

In particular, the new Directive:

• prohibits cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco with characterising flavours,
• requires the tobacco industry to submit detailed reports to the Member States on the ingredients used in tobacco products, in particular cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco,
• requires that health warnings appear on packages of tobacco and related products. Combined (picture and text) health warnings must cover 65% of the front and back of cigarette and roll-your-own tobacco packages,
• sets minimum dimensions for warnings and eliminates small packages for certain tobacco products,
• bans all promotional and misleading elements on tobacco products,
• sets out safety and quality requirements for consumer electronic cigarettes

The revision is expected to lead to a 2% drop in consumption of tobacco over a period of 5 years. This is roughly equivalent to 2.4 million fewer smokers in the EU.

Read the FAQ for more details.

Check also the E-cigarettes Myth Buster!

Male Cancers are also a woman's concern

An awareness initiative with a very smart message!

The Cancer Support Group is increasingly aware that women have really understood the message about the need for regular health checks but men, whatever their age, not so much. Male cancer sufferers also tend to react differently to the news, by keeping silent and withdrawing from social life, which can considerably diminish their ability to deal with their illness.