Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, said: "I congratulate the Presidency for adopting this ambitious eHealth Declaration that urges Member States to take concrete steps to deploy eHealth systems and to set specific targets for improving telemonitoring and management of chronic diseases. The evidence shows that eHealth pays off in terms of efficiency gains, health and welfare improvements and increased care worker productivity."
John Dalli said: "I strongly believe that Member States have much to gain from greater co-operation on eHealth, which is why the European Commission is fostering and co-financing formal EU-level co-operation in this area. I welcome this Declaration and look forward to further progress in this area - for the benefit of all of Europe's patients - for many years to come".
The Presidency Declaration outlines a common, forward-looking vision and sets out a series of policy priorities. It stresses the need for, and benefits of, investment in eHealth and telemedicine and of strengthened coordination of all policies related to eHealth. It will support the work of the eHealth task force.
The Declaration urges Member States to implement Directive 2011/24/EU on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare and urges both Member States and relevant stakeholders to:
- support and facilitate the deployment of telemedicine systems and services, in particular in the area of remote disease management where strong evidence on efficiency and clinical benefits exists
- develop and adopt guidelines for health professionals, for implementing innovative tools aiming at enabling integrated health services, e.g. chronic disease management services, tools for better use of human resources and capacities in the health sector and access to appropriate, safe and quality healthcare
- agree and implement common measures to achieve interoperability of eHealth systems
- take steps to enable data analysis for research and public health purposes while ensuring respect for protection of personal data privacy
- agree on a minimum common set of data to be collected and exchanged across Member States on chronic diseases.
The Commission particularly welcomes the fact that the Declaration urges Member States to commit themselves to concrete targets such as, by increasing use of telemedicine and telemonitoring solutions, to:
- reduce hospitalisation of chronic heart disease patients
- reduce the use of healthcare resources (i.e. hospitalisations, emergency care, primary care visits) by diabetes patients while ensuring optimal management of the condition
- improve the quality of life and/or quality-adjusted life years (QALY) and/or disability adjusted life years (DALY), measured according to agreed international methodologies.
For more than two decades, the European Commission has been supporting EU research in eHealth through the funding of more than 450 projects worth some €1 billion to enable Europe to take the leadership in research and innovation in this field.
An online public consultation on eHealth runs until 25 May. The answers will feed into the preparation of the eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020 that the Commission is due to present before the end of 2011.
The eHealth Ministerial Conference 2011 is being held from 10th to 12th May 2011 in Budapest, as apart of the eHealth week. The event is co-organised by the Hungarian Presidency and the European Commission.
v The theme of this 9th edition, "Investing in Health Systems of the Future" acknowledges that the European healthcare system is facing substantial challenges over the next decade, such as demographic change and reduced human resources, which force European leaders to re-design the healthcare landscape. eHealth Week 2011 offers an insight into how EU is planning and investing in eHealth and includes an exhibition showcasing leading industry examples of innovative solutions for eHealth.
Digital Agenda website:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm
Neelie Kroes' website:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/
John Dalli's website:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/dalli/index_en.htm