HealthManagement, Volume 10 - Issue 5, 2010
The European Commission has made substantial progress driving greater consistency between countries through a number of European- level initiatives and has won support for programmes covering multiple areas of interoperability. A policy recommendation on interoperability for electronic health records combined with a proposed Directive on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare has advanced to the European Parliament and may be adopted next year.
Meanwhile five European-level programmes are currently underway that are pioneering policies and processes crucial for increasing consistent interoperability within the countries and the eventual implementation of pan-European data exchanges. IHE-Europe is an active participant in four of these programmes: European Patient Smart Open Services (epSOS), Health Interoperability Testing and Conformance Harmonisation (HITCH), Smart Personal Health Systems (SPHS), and European e-health Governance. A fifth programme, e-health Interop also called Mandate 403, is scheduled to be launched soon.
Further information at www.ihe-europe.net
