Norwegian participation in Be He@lthy Be Mobile

NCD, Non-communicable diseases, have become a global challenge.

Norway has adopted an NCD Action Plan that integrates both preventive as well as curative measures. We are in the process of establishing national targets in order to reach the global goal of 25 percent reduction in premature mortality by 2025.

Aware of the global goal, there is a need to encourage more unified national efforts to prevent the onset of NCDs and to minimize their impact on the lives of existing patients. We are very pleased to work together with the World Health Organization and the International Telecommunication Union on this important initiative, Be He@lthy Be Mobile.

Emphasizing the fact that a large part of our population will live with chronic diseases throughout or in large parts of their lives, the health systems must enable people to live healthy with one or several diagnosis.

Good health in this context concerns the ability to master your everyday life and your disease. This is a more inclusive approach to health. And as Minister of Health, one of my most important task is ensure that our health services are patient-centered and empower the individual.

mHealth provides new possibilities to improve our way of delivering health services, and new ways to empower patients and citizens to intervene in their own health care. It is important that these new opportunities are used well.

Norway has already a highly developed telemedicine market for national health care. However, we will be working with the initiative in 2015 to focus our scope on how to assist the population to use mobile devices to cope with NCD-related problems. To contribute to innovative use of technology, we have to work together. Different stakeholders must work together in a partnership with both government, public and private suppliers, vendors and academies.

I appreciate that Norway has got the opportunity to participate in Be He@lthy Be Mobile, together with 7 other countries. We will contribute to the realization of the global goals and objectives for prevention and reduction of NCDs in Norway, and also contribute to disseminate successful solutions globally.

I believe that Be He@lthy Be Mobile is an important initiative and I am very pleased that Norway will be working with with the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, partners and other countries on an area of such importance to global health and population well-being.