HealthManagement, Volume 9 - Issue 3, 2009
A new study funded by the European Commission is assessing the progress made to date, towards the realisation of European e-Health Action Plan goals. Good practices and lessons learned constitute the study’s key elements. The results will be fed into policy recommendations for further accelerating e-Health implementation.
The study has been assigned to a consortium consisting of empirica Communication and Technology Research (Germany), The National Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland), Time.lex (Belgium), Prof. Denis Protti of the University of Victoria (Canada) and University College, London (UK), and EMC Consulting Group (Belgium). The European Commission and EU Member States have long recognised the potential of ICT-enabled applications to improve citizens’ health, healthcare delivery as well as public health services or medical research.
The e-Health Strategies study will take a closer look at policy documents, concrete e-Health implementations and national-level legal and regulatory as well as administrative support mechanisms. In addition, it will also deal with financial and reimbursement issues. The research effort draws upon earlier projects funded by the European Commission. In particular, these include the e-Health ERA study and the “Legal Framework of Interoperable e-Health in Europe” study. A network of National Correspondents will raise data on new developments and validate existing information for each country.
The final project report - based on individual country briefs - will provide a summary of e-Health progress at a European level and information regarding the spectrum of e-Health solutions available in each country, the degree of administrative and legal support and financial incentives for promoting the use of e-Health applications.
