Barriers still remain to the full participation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the framework programme (FP) in general and the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme in particular, according to a new policy paper by EFPConsulting and Empirica.

In autumn 2003 a Swedish county council introduced TietoEnator's mobile platform Instant Choice Response (ICR) for sending reminders regarding dental appointments by text message. A year later the number of missed appointments had already fallen by 16 percent. A number that is continuing to fall each month, explains Sven-Olof Andersson, financial manager at Folktandvården (the Swedish public dental care service) in Sörmland.

InterComponentWare (ICW), a leading international eHealth specialist, and Onmeda, one of Germany's leading health portals and provider of top-quality medical content, have arranged a cooperation concerning content and distribution: Users of the LifeSensor personal health record will get access to plain but substantiated medical information in the future.

Siemens Medical Solutions (Med) wants to accelerate leading-edge research in Germany. To this end, the company became heavily involved in the foundation of the first "European Institute of Molecular Imaging - EIMI" at the Westphalian Wilhelms University Muenster, Germany.

eHIT Health Gateway platform offers a mobile solution to collect measurements directly from the measuring devices and seamlessly transfer the collected data to the healthcare personnel for further analysis. According to the type of monitoring instrument used, measured data are easily transferred to the patient's mobile device via Bluetooth, infrared or cable connection.

European industrial leaders met members of the European Commission on 5 July to discuss the future of the European Technology Platform initiatives. Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik outlined the value that the Commission places on these large-scale initiatives, but asked for leaders to search the road ahead and try to anticipate market needs.

The Helse Vest – Western Norway Regional Health Authority has contracted Agfa HealthCare, along with partner eCare, to integrate patient radiology information from 15 private and public hospitals in the region, which together perform some 800,000 radiology examinations per year. The order confirms Agfa HealthCare's standing as a leading integrator of imaging and information flows in healthcare.