Microsoft Healthcare Users Group (MS-HUG) and Microsoft Corp. announced a call for entries for the MS-HUG Healthcare Innovation Awards. The annual contest, open to any healthcare organization, recognizes leadership in the use of technology to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare.

eHealth specialist InterComponentWare AG (ICW) and the Belgian Vitalsys SA agreed upon a marketing and sales cooperation. Vitalsys will offer ICW's eHealth solutions for the Belgian market and make their HomeCare devices compatible with ICW's personal health record LifeSensor.

Capgemini Sverige AB and dbMotion Ltd., one of the world's leading software suppliers of Integrated Solutions for Health information Exchange (HIE), have entered into a partnership agreement. This means that Capgemini will become a prime dbMotion partner in Sweden for providing a comprehensive solution for a National Integrated Patient Summary and local/regional medical information consolidation.

The Antwerp University Hospital (UZA Belgium) has contracted IBM's long-term business partner I.R.I.S. along with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to deliver several backbone solutions for its electronic patient record (EPR). The project, which will include the digitization of the hospital's extensive medical archive, will increase process efficiency at the hospital's Medical Information department.

The new HIMSS initiative is focused on bringing together healthcare IT professionals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, who share the common goal of improving the delivery of healthcare through information technology and management systems.

At the first World of Health IT Conference and Exhibition in Geneva, representatives of the European healthcare IT and ICT industry gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing eHealth solutions in Europe today.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (Finland) has chosen the consortium headed by WM-data, to specify the Finnish national healthcare information system architecture. The consortium includes: Avain Technologies, Commit; Oy, CSW Group and Medici Data. This specification work will provide the foundation for a logically integrated healthcare service information system nationwide.