Smolders Roel, De Boever Patrick
Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium.
Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium; Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Agoralaan, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2014 Nov;217(8):891-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2014.05.003. Epub 2014 May 27.
The European Commission recently published the first calls for proposals for the Horizon 2020 (H2020) work programme for research and innovation. When browsing through the Health programme, it became apparent that the work programme made little reference to environmental health research. In this commentary we describe major milestones of environmental health research in previous European Framework Programmes and the policy shift that took place when preparing H2020. We introduce mobile health technologies as a niche innovation to reconcile the environmental health research arena with the H2020 programme that has a clear focus on ICT. The recent economic crises urged strong policy action to reinforce Europe's economic and innovation leadership. Market-driven and job-creating ambitions became primary goals of H2020. Environmental health-related keywords referring to, e.g. human biomonitoring, exposure assessment or exposome are absent in the current H2020-calls and this may suggest a lack of opportunities for environmental health researchers. Technologies related to mobile healthcare (mhealth) are rapidly maturing and offer new research and market opportunities. In a typically technology-pushed market, these sensor technologies however require validation by a third-party and implementation in large-scale public health monitoring studies. Also, issues related to data protection need further development to warrant user rights and privacy. If the European environmental health research arena succeeds in embracing these new mhealth sensor technologies, it may not only create an opportunity to play a role as a key innovation partner in health transition technologies, but it may also support authorities to realize a transition in our healthcare with a much bigger emphasis on a preventive and sustainable system.
欧盟委员会最近发布了针对“地平线2020”（H2020）研究与创新工作计划的首批提案征集通知。在浏览健康计划时，很明显该工作计划几乎没有提及环境卫生研究。在这篇评论中，我们描述了此前欧洲框架计划中环境卫生研究的主要里程碑以及在制定H2020时发生的政策转变。我们引入移动健康技术作为一种小众创新，以使环境卫生研究领域与明确聚焦于信息通信技术的H2020计划相协调。近期的经济危机促使采取有力的政策行动来加强欧洲的经济和创新领导力。以市场为导向和创造就业的目标成为H2020的主要目标。当前的H2020征集通知中缺少与环境卫生相关的关键词，例如人类生物监测、暴露评估或暴露组，这可能表明环境卫生研究人员缺乏机会。与移动医疗保健（mhealth）相关的技术正在迅速成熟，并提供了新的研究和市场机会。然而，在一个典型的技术推动型市场中，这些传感器技术需要第三方进行验证并在大规模公共卫生监测研究中实施。此外，与数据保护相关的问题需要进一步发展，以保障用户权利和隐私。如果欧洲环境卫生研究领域成功接纳这些新的移动健康传感器技术，它不仅可能创造机会成为健康转型技术的关键创新伙伴，还可能支持当局实现医疗保健的转型，更加注重预防性和可持续性系统。
