TY - JOUR T1 - Joint WHO/ERS initiative on e-/m-Health for TB and tobacco control JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA1536 VL - 46 IS - suppl 59 SP - PA1536 AU - Dennis Falzon AU - Mario Raviglione AU - Douglas Bettcher AU - Dongbo Fu AU - Giovannibattista Migliori AU - Christina Gratziou AU - Elisabeth H. Bel Y1 - 2015/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA1536.abstract N2 - Tuberculosis (TB) and tobacco are major global causes of disease and death. Both present eminently modifiable risk factors linked to personal behaviour. Broader coverage of efforts to improve adherence to TB treatment and to get smokers to quit could improve outcomes. The increasing availability and diversity of information & communication technology (ICT) methods offer new opportunities to reach more individuals with different approaches, and to integrate tobacco control into national TB programmes.The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) have launched a series of activities to promote the use of ICT (“e-/m-Health”) for TB and tobacco control. These initiatives support the increased the large-scale uptake of key products within four streams (patient care; surveillance and pharmacovigilance; programmatic management; and eLearning) to benefit patients and their carers, and build upon existing projects (e.g “Be he@lthy Be mobile” which uses mobile technology to prevent and control non-communicable diseases).A WHO/ERS technical consultation in Geneva in late February 2015 brought together experts in TB and tobacco control, informatics, ministry of health staff, technical partners, system developers, academics and investors interested in e-/m-Health to discuss different avenues for future expansion of ICT tools for TB and tobacco control. As a result of this initial discussion, target profiles were developed for pathfinder interventions, including laboratory information systems for TB, surveillance & monitoring tools and aids for adherence. The scaled implementation of these products is being supported through the initiative in countries from early 2015. ER -