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Most viewed in Health & society
Fall in dangerous product notificationsCommission report says number of unsafe products banned, withdrawn, or recalled fell by 20% in 2011 compared to the previous year |
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Cut out the smoke, reduce the risks
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More tobacco is not the answer
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Taking the initiative on health
Although EU-supported projects have made progress in areas such as regional health networks, electronic health records in primary care, and deployment of smart health cards, the focus now is on improving cross-border co-ordination.
The EU's Digital Agenda for Europe and Innovation Union, part of the Europe 2020 jobs and growth strategy, incorporates an important role for e-health, with targeted actions as part of a strategy towards sustainable healthcare, and a pilot European Innovation Partnership on active and healthy ageing.
The Chain of Trust, a project involving patients, doctors, pharmacists and nurses aimed at promoting acceptance of tele-health services, is due to release its preliminary findings within weeks.
Calliope focuses on interoperability between systems and countries.
Renewing Health aims at translating telemedicine pilot projects of excellence into the mainstream.
Sustains examines patients' ownership of electronic health records.
Common standards
Other areas that EU projects are exploring include achieving secure online access for citizens to their medical data by 2015 and widespread deployment of telemedicine services by 2020, defining a minimum common set of patient data by 2012, EU-wide standards and interoperability testing for e-health, and reinforcing assisted living.
A survey on the use of electronic health records was concluded in August, as part of a project aiming to create a Europe-wide platform for the re-use of such data for clinical research purposes.
A project on information technology and the future of medicine was presented in the European Parliament on 20 September, addressing the role of research infrastructures, international co-operation and pre-competitive collaboration. The aim is to create a ‘virtual patient' by developing general models of human pathways, tissues, and ultimately of the whole human organism, to allow physicians to identify personalised prevention schedules, therapies and potential effects on individual patients.
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