High Level Meeting on eHealth

Swedish Presidency plays host on 22-23 October to the European network of state secretaries responsible for eHealth, which met for the first time in Prague in February this year. The aim is to jointly produce a new European structure for cooperation to implement the Council conclusions in this area that are expected to be adopted on 1 December 2009.

The Council conclusions are scheduled for adoption at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council on 1 December. The conclusions are intended to put eHealth on the political agenda and highlight eHealth as a key enabler for various health reforms. They also highlight tangible areas for cooperation and the need for stronger governance and coordination of cooperation in this area.

The network of state secretaries and directors-general meeting on 22-23 October is to decide how the process can be moved forward after the Council conclusions. The theme of the meeting is 'European eHealth Governance'. This includes producing a new European cooperation structure for the implementation of the conclusions, i.e. how the Member States are to translate words into action. In concrete terms, the meeting is expected to mark the start of negotiations on a Joint Action on eHealth, a special form of cooperation within the framework of the public health programme.

A series of working sessions and workshops at expert level have preceded the meeting in the summer and autumn. At these meetings ideas and proposals were established among the Member States and background information for a decision has been prepared; the state secretaries' group therefore has well-founded proposals on which to agree on Friday.

The eHealth concept
The concept of eHealth includes all use of information and communication techno­logies (ICT) in the health and medical care sector. Examples include electronic health records, electronic prescriptions, digital imaging and health information directed at citizens via web portals. eHealth services facilitate the simple and secure exchange of essential health data between healthcare providers within and between countries. The services can also be used by countries wishing to exchange information electronically for research, follow-up or quality comparison purposes.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.se2009.eu

Most Popular Now

Is Your Marketing Effective for an NHS C…

How can you make sure you get the right message across to an NHS chief information officer, or chief nursing information officer? Replay this webinar with Professor Natasha Phillips, former...

Welcome Evo, Generative AI for the Genom…

Brian Hie runs the Laboratory of Evolutionary Design at Stanford, where he works at the crossroads of artificial intelligence and biology. Not long ago, Hie pondered a provocative question: If...

We could Soon Use AI to Detect Brain Tum…

A new paper in Biology Methods and Protocols, published by Oxford University Press, shows that scientists can train artificial intelligence (AI) models to distinguish brain tumors from healthy tissue. AI...

Telehealth Significantly Boosts Treatmen…

New research reveals a dramatic improvement in diagnosing and curing people living with hepatitis C in rural communities using both telemedicine and support from peers with lived experience in drug...

AI can Predict Study Results Better than…

Large language models, a type of AI that analyses text, can predict the results of proposed neuroscience studies more accurately than human experts, finds a new study led by UCL...

Using AI to Treat Infections more Accura…

New research from the Centres for Antimicrobial Optimisation Network (CAMO-Net) at the University of Liverpool has shown that using artificial intelligence (AI) can improve how we treat urinary tract infections...

Research Study Shows the Cost-Effectiven…

Earlier research showed that primary care clinicians using AI-ECG tools identified more unknown cases of a weak heart pump, also called low ejection fraction, than without AI. New study findings...

New Guidance for Ensuring AI Safety in C…

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in health care, organizations and clinicians must take steps to ensure its safe implementation and use in real-world clinical settings, according to an...

Remote Telemedicine Tool Found Highly Ac…

Collecting images of suspicious-looking skin growths and sending them off-site for specialists to analyze is as accurate in identifying skin cancers as having a dermatologist examine them in person, a...

Philips Aims to Advance Cardiac MRI Tech…

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) and Mayo Clinic announced a research collaboration aimed at advancing MRI for cardiac applications. Through this investigation, Philips and Mayo Clinic will look to...

Deep Learning Model Accurately Diagnoses…

Using just one inhalation lung CT scan, a deep learning model can accurately diagnose and stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a study published today in Radiology: Cardiothoracic...

Shape-Changing Device Helps Visually Imp…

Researchers from Imperial College London, working with the company MakeSense Technology and the charity Bravo Victor, have developed a shape-changing device called Shape that helps people with visual impairment navigate...