Public Report
eHealth priorities and strategies in European countries
eHealth ERA: a coordination service to the European Union Member States
Member States are seeking eHealth benefits
Computerised applications in the field of health – in short: eHealth – can significantly improve health service delivery to European citizens. For example, electronically restored summaries of core patient data can improve emergency treatment; electronic prescriptions transferred directly from the physician to the chemist can save costs; online available information about diseases can help ease patients’ lives. Many European countries are developing such applications and seek to implement or improve them soon. However, currently the transparency and common awareness about Member States' eHealth priorities is limited. This is where eHealth ERA seeks to assist.
Key objective: foster coordination of Member States’ eHealth strategy formulation and implementation
The objective of the eHealth ERA project is to contribute to the coordination of Member States’ eHealth strategy formulation and implementation as well as eHealth-related Research and Technology Development (RTD). The project surveys and analyses eHealth roadmaps and RTD programmes across Europe, identifies common priority issues, and develops a roadmap for joint actions. The project will recommend sustainable mechanisms for effective transnational cooperation between all or several of the participating states for their mutual benefit. Thereby eHealth ERA aims at establishing an effective European Research Area (ERA) in eHealth. It also supports the achievement of the European eHealth Action Plan, which has the goal to share best eHealth practices and to measure progress as well as to address common challenges and to foster pilot actions. The outcomes of this work will be made progressively publicly available on this website.
Benefits of the project: improved eHealth infrastructure and quality of life
In a wider perspective: The broad European Research Area initiative aims at the creation of an “internal market” in RTD, restructuring the European research fabric through improved coordination of national research activities and policies. Improving the coordination and coherence of current eHealth research planning – whether basic, applied, or deployment-oriented – can be expected to have a strategic impact on regional, national and trans-European eHealth infrastructures, improve the quality of medical outcomes, and hence the quality of life of citizens in Europe.