E-health development vital, says European Commissioner

European Commissioner Viviane Redding has announced that the focus for future policy and funding in eHealth will be on moves to foster interoperability, together with supporting the development of assistive technologies to support independent living, writes Jon Hoeksma from Malaga. 

Speaking on the opening day of the high level eHealth 2006 conference in Malaga, Spain, the Commissioner for the EU’s Information Society and Media directorate general said that e-health was essential to meet the growing healthcare needs of Europe’s ageing population.

Redding said: “The greatest challenge we face is the demographics of our ageing population, here e-health really can help in cutting costs.” To illustrate the growing demands she pointed out that one in three elderly people visit their family practitioner more than once a month.

The Commissioner announced to delegates gathered across Europe, “This is why I am going to launch an initiative for independent living.” Rather than focus on reactive care she said that the focus will now be on preventative, personalised healthcare.

To aid this process she said that she will “change the scope of EU e-health research to shift the investment into preventative healthcare”. Prime areas included chronic disease management such are cardiovascular disease.

“Personalised healthcare systems can help us tackle cardiovascular disease, which one in five European citizens have some form of.” She highlighted MyHeart as a EU supported project that was demonstrating how remote monitoring can better support individuals with cardiac problems.

Speaking of the European Commission’s record in e-health over the past decade she said that some 500 million euros had been invested in the last three years alone, and that e-health was now a “dynamic sector” experiencing “double digit growth”.

The Commissioner added: “The key to these successes are long term investments by regional and national authorities and partnerships with industry.”

Redding said: “E-health is already being widely deployed across Europe and patients are seeing the benefits.”

But to accelerate adoption, reduce the cost of deployments and deliver greater benefits to patients by making it much easier for systems to exchange information she stressed that there needed to be a much greater emphasis given to interoperability. “This will be a priority in coming months and years,” said Redding.

To aid efforts in this area the EU has already published an interoperability discussion paper on which comments and feedback are being sought from across the healthcare sector. The paper will inform a new ehealth interoperability programme, now under development, due to be launched in Autumn 2007.

The Commissioner pledged that she will work at a ministerial level to encourage EU member states and regions to focus on interoperability in health IT. “This will involve not just health ministers but also ministers responsible for innovation and research.”

“E-health is essential for the future of our continent… its not just about reducing costs and improving the quality of care and improving patients’ lives but about making their lives more enjoyable,” she concluded.