An EU eHealth Task Force to assess the role of ICT in health and social care and to suggest ways for ICT to speed up innovation in healthcare to the benefit of patients, carers and the healthcare sector, met for the first time in Budapest on 10 May 2011. It was chaired by Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

The high level advisory group, which met on the margins of eHealth Week in Hungary, comprises health care professionals, representatives of patients and of the medical, pharmaceutical and ICT industries, legal experts and policy makers.

The eHealth Task Force will advise the European Commission on how to unlock the potential of eHealth for safer, better and more efficient healthcare in Europe inter alia as regards diagnostics, prevention and treatment. It will look carefully at how to achieve interoperability of eHealth services and technologies across the EU. It will also explore the relationships between eHealth, telemedicine, and social policy, initiatives.

The Task Force will take into account current policy developments at EU level, including the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing and the recently adopted Directive on patient rights for cross border care, but its focus will be on the future, and how innovation can benefit healthcare systems and society at large.

ICT applications already help to empower patients and to address challenges faced by EU healthcare systems like an ageing population, a rise in chronic diseases, a shortage in health professionals and budget constraints by, for example, enabling remote diagnosis and treatment and secure sharing of patient records.

However, there is considerable potential to develop eHealth much further in the future: allowing healthcare workers to dedicate more time to be with patients; enhancing self-help and independence of patients and elderly; and to develop new model-based diagnostic techniques. Promoting eHealth is a key objective of the Digital Agenda for Europe. A recent survey on eHealth shows that hospitals are not yet deploying ICTs to their full potential. Although most hospitals are connected to broadband, only 4 % of them grant patients online access to their medical data.

Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, said "The potential of eHealth for delivering better and sustainable care to every European is enormous. I expect the eHealth Task Force to creatively think through the possible consequences and opportunities of the digital area for the way we receive and deliver healthcare and manage our health in the years to come."

John Dalli, European commissioner in charge of Health and Consumer Policy said: "I believe eHealth tools can help provide better care, to more people, in a more sustainable and efficient manner. There is a clear need in Europe to exploit the potential of eHealth to deliver concrete solutions for patients: innovative tools for chronic disease management and the use of telemedicine to lessen the impact of health workforce shortages are examples of the immense added value of ICT in health. It is imperative that interoperable ICT systems and medical devices complement our initiative to give patients the right to cross-border health care. ICT is also an important tool to help us in our endeavour to achieve sustainability and redress inequalities in health care."

Further information:

• Original press release - RAPID - Europa

• Related ePractice publication - eHealth Benchmarking (Phase III)