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.
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