From eHealth strategies to eHealth services

Published: 05/08

PORTOROZ, SLOVENIA - (HealthTech Wire) - In eHealth, the European Commission is now moving from research to deployment. At the 6th eHealth conference in Portoroz, Slovenia, commissioner Viviane Reding renewed her call for action, pointing to the achievements that have already been made.

“Europe is faced with the challenge of an ageing population and ever increasing mobility among its citizens,” said the European commissioner for information society in her opening speech at the Portoroz conference. In truth, however, she was not actually there: her speech was transmitted from Brussels by video streaming. But the delegates applauded, nevertheless. It was an IT event, after all.

Reding recalled recent steps that were taken by the European Commission under the framework of the 2004 eHealth action plan in order to support the implementation of eHealth products and services all over Europe. “In the last four years, we have heavily increased funding for eHealth, we have encouraged interoperability and worked towards a legal framework for eHealth services.”

Most recently, a Europe-wide survey among General Practitioners was published that showed a high usage of the internet and of electronic data storage solutions among doctors all over Europe. “But comparably few doctors actually exchange health information online, mainly because of interoperability problems that we still have to solve,” said Reding.

One key step in this direction will be the recommendations on the cross-border interoperability of electronic health record systems. “The recommendations will provide principles on how to achieve interoperability especially in cross-border settings,” said Reding. The cross-border interoperability of eHealth infrastructures is also what the “SOS large-scale pilot project” is all about. This is certainly the most visible step that the European Commission has taken to move from eHealth research to eHealth deployment in Europe.

The project was presented in detail by the Swedish state secretary, Karen Johannson. Under Swedish leadership, the “SOS project” involves twelve European countries that are already working on national eHealth infrastructure solutions. The goal is to make these national solutions interoperable, so that personal medical data can be accessed all over Europe.

There are two services that will be developed in a first step: a patient summary which contains basic medical information such as diagnoses or laboratory results, and an electronic prescription service with an electronic medication list. “With these applications, we are finally moving from eHealth strategies to eHealth services in Europe. eHealth is now mature enough to take this step,” said Johannson.

The European Commission announced in Portoroz that the contract for the SOS project will be signed before the summer break. What has already been reached is an agreement on the structure of the management board. It will consist of one representative of each ministry of health of the contributing Member States. “This is really the first time that we have had a board like this in the healthcare sector on a European level,” said Johannson. In addition, 31 IT companies are involved in the project. “What we are particularly proud of is that the standard organisation IHE will join the team for developing the new eHealth services. All in all, this is certainly the largest and most ambitious EU project in the healthcare domain we have ever seen.” (PP)

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