This workshop is dedicated to all those involved in the health sector, such as hospitals, health insurance companies, associations, and health service providers or consumer organisations. Although a lot has been achieved with respect to European integration there is still much to be done when it comes to cross-border health care. The current situation is characterised by citizens becoming patients urged to pay cash when abroad, hospitals desperate about getting money for treatment of foreign patients after several years, health insurers and hospitals commonly suffering from lengthy and laborious administrative processes.
With a recommendation for a new Directive the European Commission has recently put this topic on the policy agenda of Europe. On July 2, the European Commission released, as part of the Renewed Social Agenda, two documents with significant importance to suppoting cross-border healthcare delivery. The long awaited proposal for a "Directive on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare" aims at clarification of the legal rights of patients to healthcare abroad and opens the way for reinforced cooperation between Member States. The "Recommendation on cross-border interoperability of electronic health record (EHR) systems" provides Member States with basic principles and guidelines for ensuring that vital information on patients is accessible anywhere at any time throughout Europe - no matter where the patient or doctor are based.
Practical possibilities and solutions already existing today will be demonstrated at the workshop with examples coming from the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Baltic states.
The workshop is organised by the TEN4Health project which is supported by the European Commission. The workshop will be opened by a representative from the European Commission and Dr. Milan Cabrnoch, Member of the European Parliament.
For further information and regisration please visit:
http://www.ten4health.eu/workshop.html
The workshop is free. Refreshments and lunch for the participants are sponsored by the TEN4Health project.
Venue: Kieler Schloss, Burgstraße 3, 24103 Kiel (www.kielerschloss.de). The nearest airport is Hamburg.
Those workshop participants interested are also welcome to attend the "eHealth 2008 Conference" taking place at the same venue immediately after the workshop. More information on this conference can be obtained here: http://ehealth.gvg-koeln.de.
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About TEN4Health Project
The TEN4Health project, coordinated by empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH (Germany), will develop a service package which will improve access of mobile citizens to healthcare provision in other Member States, based on a secure web service and its integration into developing European eHealth networks. Its key components include: pertinent information for citizens in their language at the point and time of treatment abroad, instantaneous verification of insurance status, electronification of reimbursement procedures across Member State borders and assurance of interoperability. The TEN4Health service package thereby fundamentally contributes to a better acceptance of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and prepares for its eCard version. It greatly enhances and extends its utility by integrating efficient support for electronic post-processing at the Union level. To reach these goals, close cooperation with the NETC@RDS activities has been assured.
3 public health insurances, 11 hospitals and 3 further institutions in six Member States (DE, NL, BE, AT, IT, CZ) are involved, and a key aspect is evaluation of the service by its target clients, the mobile European citizen. The service will be validated at 11 sites in 6 countries; a large number of end users are expected to become involved in assessing accessibility, usability, effectiveness and efficiency of the service. The technology already available as a fully tested prototype will be scaleable and fully transferable to other Member States after adaptations to national requirements.
For further information, please visit www.ten4health.eu.
About empirica
empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH (empirica) has many years of experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Its clients are private companies and public bodies: large and medium-sized companies in the insurance, pharmaceutical and automobile industries as well as software developers and hardware manufacturers. There are also telecommunications service companies and network providers, social services firms, medical facilities, Federal and State Government ministries in Germany and the European Commission as well as the European statistical office (Eurostat). For further information, please visit www.empirica.com.