The Czech Health Minister has opened the 7th expert conference entitled "eHealth for Individuals, Society and Economy". The event, which is one of the Ministry's priorities, has brought together 500 participants from 37 countries. The ministerial conference, organised by the Ministry of Health as one of its priority events during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, is taking place in Prague on 19 and 20 February. Traditionally, this conference is attended not only by representatives of the EU Member States, but also the candidate countries, the EFTA States and countries of the Western Balkans.
The conference officially opened today with a ministerial panel discussion, the aim of which was to address the underlying questions: what are the benefits of eHealth to patients and healthcare workers, society and the economy, and what are the main obstacles to the development of eHealth services among the Member States? The conference is now running in parallel sections focusing on eHealth benefits to individuals, society and the economy. During the two-day programme, more than 50 experts from the whole of Europe will present their views and opinions.
"Primarily, eHealth brings benefits to patients and healthcare workers. It gives doctors easier access to information on patients' health, the possibility to control expenditure and greater mobility. Patients will be able to obtain information about their health or drug dosage while their personal data will be fully protected," says Minister Filipiová. Electronic tools have a great potential in science and development as well as education and training. All in all, eHealth helps increase the quality and safety of healthcare services as well as their efficiency.
At the end of the conference, the Prague Declaration is expected to be adopted. Its main objective is to sum up the current state of the Europe-wide effort to use information and communication technologies in healthcare for the benefit of patients as well as economic efficiency of the health sector. It also aims to determine further steps to be taken at the level of Member States as well as European institutions. At the same time, a common European eHealth area should be built, where individual national systems will be able to communicate with one another. Integrating eHealth solutions into national health strategies of the Member States will also be of great importance.
Actions of the Member States directed towards eHealth implementation and their mutual high-level coordination should become a regular part of the agenda of each Presidency, Heads of the Member State delegations agreed at their meeting yesterday. "I am very pleased that it is the Czech Presidency that has brought together Deputy Ministers and States Secretaries of the Member States responsible for this area for the first time ever. Their final agreement is a breakthrough as it aims at establishing a high-level coordination structure which should deal with issues such as data compatibility of the individual systems and the protection of patients' data. This is a key step towards accelerating eHealth implementation in the EU," says Marek najdr, First Deputy Minister of Health who chaired the meeting.
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