The TRANSFoRm project consortium of 15 European Universities and two private partners signed a contract on 8 January 2010 with the European Commission to develop methods, standards and systems for the integration of healthcare computer systems for clinical care and research.

The project has two aims:

• To help General Practitioners make a better diagnosis by integrating decision support directly into their electronic records systems and;
• To accelerate the recruitment, management and follow up of patients for research studies by enabling routine electronic health record systems to link to research databases.

There are considerable challenges to be overcome in the legal and ethical domains in relation to the access to the data, the legal frameworks for research, the models for interoperability between systems and the development of standards and sustainable models for deploying and using the work of the project.

Further information:

• Original Press Release - European Commission - Europe's Information Society Thematic Portal
• TRANSFoRm project