eHealthNews.eu

24 - 27 February 2014, Barcelona, Spain.
The European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance) is the Official mPowered Industries Health Partner for Mobile World Congress. This first-time focus on Health and Wellbeing during Mobile World Congress creates opportunities for stakeholders to engage meaningfully with mobile operators and others to identify and remove the obstacles delaying and preventing deployments at scale which would bring benefits to citizens and commercial opportunities for industry.

Horizon 2020 is built around three pillars:
1. Support for "Excellent Science" - including grants for individual researchers from the European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships (formerly known as Marie Curie fellowships);
2. Support for "Industrial Leadership" - including grants for small and medium-sized enterprises and indirect finance for companies through the European Investment Bank and other financial intermediaries;
3. Support for research to tackle "societal challenges". During negotiations between the European Parliament and Council it was decided to support research towards meeting seven broad challenges:

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland recently coordinated a pan-European initiative called SMARCOS, which focused on developing technology based on internet sharing between devices. The technology allows the interfaces of various smart devices to follow consumers’ actions and react immediately to their needs. The smart coaching service, for example, can use all the user's digital devices for motivating his/her behaviour towards the goals or for reminding medication.

To help patients manage their (potential) chronic heart and kidney disease, the European Commission has awarded 2,6 million euros to the CARRE project. A group of interdisciplinary researchers will compile personalised alerting, planning and educational services. This will empower patients, and both professionals and patients will be able to make shared informed decisions on the disease.

2 - 4 April 2014, Nice, France.
Nice is the glittering host for next April's landmark WoHIT event - the first time the conference has taken place in the important French market. Attendees from French organisations, especially ones working with the HIMSS EMRAM model, is expected to be considerable - though a fully pan - European audience is guaranteed, too.

Children learning to speak depend on functional hearing. So-called cochlear implants allow deaf people to hear again by stimulating the auditory nerve directly. Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are working to overcome current limits of the technology. They are investigating the implementation of signals in the auditory nerve and the subsequent neuronal processing in the brain. Using the computer models developed at the TUM manufacturers of cochlear implants improve their devices.

By Richard Craven, Vice-president and Managing Director, EMEA for Caradigm.
Influential politicians continue to voice very strong criticism over the cost of the National Programme for IT; but a greater concern is that the health service still does not have the information systems it needs to help clinicians improve healthcare and deliver an affordable healthcare economy in the future.