The Lisbon Council in 2000 agreed to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty and social exclusion by 2010. Building a more inclusive European Union is an essential element in achieving the Union's ten year strategic goal of sustained economic growth, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. Member States coordinate their policies for combating poverty and social exclusion on the basis of a process of policy exchanges and mutual learning known as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC).
Biomedical engineering is one of the most dynamic and innovative industries. In terms of patents and of its share of the world market, Germany is in second place after the USA. According to the data of the European Patent Office in Munich, biomedical engineering is at the top of the list of registered inventions with 14,700. Altogether, 11.4 percent of all newly registered patents are from the biomedical engineering industry.
Traditionally home automation, consumer electronics, mobile communications and personal computing were strictly separate domains all having their own industrial companies, with their own business plans, standardization efforts and form factors. By introducing the networked home, also called the connected home, this traditional separation of activities is no longer valid.
Healthcare@Home, the research project led by Cardiff University in partnership with IBM has developed a new approach to the use of information technology in healthcare. The project delivers an open-standard framework for earlier detection of disease that allows healthcare providers globally to "plug and play" a wider range of technical solutions to deliver more 'personalized' and cost-effective services to their patients. The governments Technology Strategy Board is commending the project as an example of best practice.
With the introduction of the new card approx. 80 million people with statutory and private health insurance, 21,000 pharmacists, 123,000 registered doctors, 65,000 dentists, 2,200 hospitals as well as the private and statutory health insurance providers will be connected to each other. A project on this scale is unique in Europe and represents an enormous technical and organisational challenge. That is why the Electronic Health Card will not be able to do everything from the outset. It will be gradually expanded with new functions.