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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

EU Task Force to advise how to promote eHealth to help patients and healthcare systems in Europe

An EU eHealth Task Force to assess the role of information and communications technologies (ICT) in health and social care and to suggest ways for ICT to speed up innovation in healthcare to the benefit of patients, carers and the healthcare sector has met for the first time in Budapest on 10th May, chaired by Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, said "The potential of eHealth for delivering better and sustainable care to every European is enormous. I expect the eHealth Task Force to creatively think through the possible consequences and opportunities of the digital area for the way we receive and deliver healthcare and manage our health in the years to come."

John Dalli, European commissioner in charge of Health and Consumer Policy said: " I believe eHealth tools can help provide better care, to more people, in a more sustainable and efficient manner. There is a clear need in Europe to exploit the potential of eHealth to deliver concrete solutions for patients: innovative tools for chronic disease management and the use of telemedicine to lessen the impact of health workforce shortages are examples of the immense added value of ICT in health. It is imperative that interoperable ICT systems and medical devices complement our initiative to give patients the right to cross-border health care. ICT is also an important tool to help us in our endeavour to achieve sustainability and redress inequalities in health care".

A recent survey on eHealth shows that hospitals are not yet deploying ICTs to their full potential. Although most hospitals are connected to broadband, only 4% of them grant patients online access to their medical data (MEMO/11/282).

The eHealth Task Force will advise the Commission on how to unlock the potential of eHealth for safer, better and more efficient healthcare in Europe inter alia as regards diagnostics, prevention and treatment. It will look carefully at how to achieve inter-operability of eHealth services and technologies across the EU.

It will also explore the relationships between eHealth, telemedicine, and social policy, initiatives.

The Task Force will take into account current policy developments at EU level, including the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing and the recently adopted Directive on patient rights for cross border care, but its focus will be on the future, and how innovation can benefit healthcare systems and society at large.

Source  Press room - European Commission

More information  Press room - European Commission

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