Addressing eHealth at the EU Level

Abstract

The important role of eHealth in health and social care systems has been widely recognised in the EU Member States. The European Commission is supporting them in implementing eHealth in their healthcare systems through different activities including the work towards the deployment of electronic health records (EHR), for which considerable investments have been made for decades. The Directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border health, the eHealth Task Force Report ‘Redesigning health in Europe for 2020’, the eHealth Action Plan 2012–2020: ‘Innovative healthcare for the 21st century’, projects assessing the impact of eHealth tools on patient empowerment – these are few examples of documents and EU-wide projects that aim at enabling fast access to vital information and sharing of information among health professionals, improving access to quality and efficiency of care.