EC to Give Patients Secure Access to Digital Health Records

The European Commission (EC; Brussels, Belgium) has launched pilot initiatives to equip Europeans with secure online access to their medical health data by 2015, and to achieve widespread deployment of telemedicine services by 2020.

Promoted as part of the EC's Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE), a flagship initiative of the EU 2020 strategy, the pilot program is part of the eHealth pillar of the DAE, which encompass issues ranging from developing interoperability and standards to ultra fast Internet access, digital literacy, and eGovernment solutions. This is part of a planned EUR 11 billion investment by 2020 to develop Europe's digital infrastructure, with the declared goal of raising Internet coverage across the continent to 100% by 2013, and to facilitate data exchange at greater than 30 Mbps by 2020.

"Telemedicine can help chronic patients and we are urging decision-makers and payers to invest in this technology,” said pharmacist Flora Girogio, of the EC's Information and communications technology (ICT) for Health unit, speaking at the Global eHealth Forum, held during November 2010 in Hamburg (Germany). "The most underused resource in healthcare is the patient and there is a common understanding among Member States that patients have to be empowered.”

"In Europe, healthcare is a human right,” added Ms. Giorgio. "But 20% of the patients are consuming 80% of the resources in the system. Patients are becoming more demanding. Expenditure within the healthcare system is growing faster than the economy. An aging population is challenging for healthcare systems.”

Standards and interoperability among information technology (IT) systems across member states is another major concern of the DAE, and by 2012 a minimum set of common patient data should be available for interoperable patient records. As part of this initiative, the EC-funded Smart Open Services for European Patients (epSOS) project, involving 12 Member States, has launched a pilot project in this area. Additionally, by mid 2011, a memorandum of understanding is to be signed between the United States and Europe on the interoperability of health data exchange.

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