Digital health in the Americas: advances and challenges in connected health.
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In 2005 all WHO Member States pledged to fight for universal health coverage UHC The availability of financial human and technological resources seems to be necessary to develop efficient health policies and also to offer UHC One of the main challenges facing the health sector comes from the need to innovate efficiently The intense use of information and communication technologies ICTs in the health field evidences a notable improvement in results obtained by institutions health professionals and patients principally in developed countries In the Americas the relationship between economic development and health innovation is not particularly evident Data from 19 of 35 countries surveyed in the 2015 Third Global Survey on eHealth for the region of the Americas were analysed 52 6 of the countries of the Americas have a national policy or strategy for UHC 57 9 of the countries in the sample indicate that they have a national eHealth policy or strategy but only 26 3 have an entity that supervises the quality safety and reliability regulations for mobile health applications The survey data indicate that high income and low income to middle income countries show higher percentages in relation to the existence of entities that promote innovation These countries also exceed 60 compared with 40 and 50 in lower income countries in all cases regarding the use of eHealth practices such as mobile health remote patient monitoring or telehealth 100 of low income countries report offering ICT training to healthcare professionals compared with 83 of wealthy countries and 81 of middle income to high income countries