e-Health

Health policy needs

EU Members States face similar challenges of meeting the increased need ofr care which are caused primarily by the rapid aging of the population and the unprecedented increase in patients with chronic deseases. Partly as a result of these developments there has been a significant growth in the number of patients with several chronic co-morbidities, as well as a wide range of other age-related conditions and infirmities. These demands are transformed into demands for care and strain on shrinking healthcare budgets.

On the demand side, society and patients expect that therapy and care are optimized to the highest level of quality. The enormous progress in health research and technology provides many new treament possibilities. While these are increasingly effective, they are considerably costlier than the treatments they replace. The options for permanent cures remain few. Many ethical dilemmas challenge political decisions with regard to the proper allocation of scarce resources, while rising costs clearly threaten the ability of society to finance healthcare.

In 2000, the e Europe initiative was launched by the European Commission who envisioned a goal of developing the EU into knowledge based economy so as to create more jobs and growth and enhance the awareness of as well as increase access for all citizens to the information age. The idea was mainly developed as a result of the Lisbon summit.  

2000 Lisbon Strategy

At the Lisbon summit in 2000, the strategy focused on making Europe more competitive and dynamic, in 2005 the focus moved on to growth and creating jobs. So, the “Community Lisbon Reform” programme was created at European level which in turn encouraged national reform programmes from 2008 – 2010. These national programmes are then enhanced by “integrated guidelines” which were revised every year. At the end of every year, the Commission introduced a national progress report for each of the member states, in order to assess the effect of the national programmes as well as to provide a review of the community programme.    

First Phase – e-Europe 2002

The first phase of e Europe officially began with the e-Europe 2002 Action Plan which complemented the e-Europe 2002 initiative, contained 64 targets and promised to focus on the benefits of the internet and promote connectivity. One of these targets involved stimulating use of the internet which took health online in account in the “e-Europe 2002 action plan”. As part of this health online programme, this action plan promised to develop health telematics infrastructure and electronic health services, to create a criteria to measure the quality of health related websites and finally to build health technology and data assessment networks.

Although this plan helped create the current framework for electronic communications and legislation for e commerce, it did not help improve effective use of the internet. Therefore, the next policy action that would begin after this 2002 action ended would focus on the use of ICT by increasing the availability of high quality infrastructure, the availability of other attractive services and applications as well as the encouragement of organisational change.

Achievements of this plan, especially for health, included that

• 78% of EU medical general practitioners were connected to the Internet (almost 100% connected in the UK and in the Nordic countries,

• 48% of medical practitioners use Electronic Health Care Records

• 46% use the Internet to transmit patient data to other care providers for the purposes of continuity of care.

e-Europe 2005

When the e-Europe 2005 action followed up on the above policy direction, it mainly concentrated on making full use of the broadband possibilities so as to provide online services to the public and private sector. These main aims were broken down into the “supply” and the “demand” sides. The “supply” side involved removing barriers to the upgrade of existing and development of new infrastructure and to have potential financial incentives in place for countries suffering from economic failures. The “demand” side contained objectives such as countering regulatory obstacles to the creation of new services and enhancing use, improving quality and cost of IT and high speed connections for the public sector and businesses. 

As part of the “e-Europe 2005 action plan”, a key target was to improve online health services. The specific actions in this plan included the introduction of electronic health cards, the strengthening of health information networks as well as accessibility and services of health provided to citizens.

Finances for the e Europe programmes were provided by existing funds within the EU rather than raising new funds or using public expenditure. The e Europe initiative finished at the end of 2005 and was continued by the i2010 initiative.

Current i2010 strategy as introduced by the i2010 communication

Recently, the EU policy area for the information society and the media was covered by i2010. This strategy highlighted the economic, social and personal importance of ICT. This began after 2010 with the help of an impact assessment conducted in light of the new Lisbon treaty implications together with the i2010 communication.

This i2010 communication was presented in 2005 and was updated since then through annual reports and through “Europe's digital competiveness report” from 2005 - 2009. A public consultation was also organised in the form of a debate on an information society beyond 2005 which contained a section on “Making modern and efficient public services available and accessible to all”. This looked into the possibility of exploiting e health further so as to improve the help to the ageing population and the people affected by chronic diseases.

Three objectives of the i2010 strategy

The initiative has three main objectives. Firstly, the establishment of a “Single European Information Space” which focused on offering secure, affordable and fast digital service. Secondly, an emphasis on the EU's research and development, especially for the private sector in terms of innovation and technological leadership. Lastly, i2010 wants to promote a Europe for all citizens by dealing exclusively with issues such as eAccessibility, eGovernment, culture, digital literacy and the digital gap.

This third aim also includes a goal of providing better services to all especially for e health. For example, the i2010 communication mentions that IT is capable of improving the health of our citizens via new ICT enabled medical and welfare services. In addition, ICT can help make public health and welfare systems more efficient and effective. 

High Level Group to monitor the strategy

i2010 was also responsible for the creation of a High Level Group consisting of member state representatives who had to advise the EU Commission on how the i2010 strategy had to be implemented. The group also reviewed the progress of i2010 including its implementation and policy development. Finally, it was also a forum to exchange experiences about i2010.

Public Consultation on post i2010 

This public hearing was conducted in order to determine a new strategy for the new Information Society. The DG Information Society and Media, Unit "Lisbon Strategy and i2010" held a public hearing on the post-i2010 strategy in September 2009 in Brussels in order to discuss this consultation.  

Next Steps - The Digital Agenda 2010

A summary of the responses to the above consultation will be released in due time. Neelie Kroes mentioned that the main aims of the Digital Agenda were high-speed internet for all Europeans and supporting citizens to learn and to use new and different skills to take advantage of the digital world. The main areas to be addressed include fragmented digital markets, insufficient research and innovation, lack of skills and lack of inoperability. Recently, the Commission has welcomed the European Parliament's support for the Digital Agenda.

ICT in healthcare

ICT is an abriviation of Information & communication Technology. The scope of introducing ICT to healthcare is to create a template of shared information for medical professionals. The hope is that by making patients medical history avaiable diagnosis will be given faster and it will become easier to detect and act when discovered.


E-Health 2011

As E-health is already worth € 15 billion in the EU, Brussels is trying to remove obstacles and speed up legislation to boost growth in the sector.There is an unstoppable trend in mobile health devices that help patients to monitor their health, communicate with their doctors and store medical records. The information is relayed over cable and satellite networks owned or operated by phone and TV companies.  

As demand for e-health services is expected to grow, several countries are offering mobile health devices to reduce the cost and time patients spend in hospital or at the doctor. Examples are KPN in the Netherlands, offering diabeticStation and Telecom Italia has the MyDoctor@home service. In Belgium, Belgacom is testing a project for people with heart conditions, while Portugal Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have services for disabled people.

According to MEP Neelie Kroes, innovation can't come soon enough. Therefore the E-Health industry will play a critical role in the European Union's digital agenda and innovation union, as well as the European Commission's new Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.The adoption of eHealth needs an extensive broadband network, common and harmonized technical standards, updated purchasing programmes, guaranteed protection of patient data, and training for health professionals.