InterComponentWare (ICW), a leading international healthcare IT solution provider, addressed the PA eHealth Initiative (PAeHI) Executive Board in an educational session to share information about its healthcare technology successes in Europe. Peter Reuschel, CEO of ICW, travelled from Walldorf, Germany, to present strategies and real-life examples of implemented eHealth projects that utilize eHealth Cards (smart card technology), Personal Health Records (PHR), and full interoperability solutions.

This is the fourth annual edition of e-Business W@tch which, since 2001, has been monitoring the adoption, development and impact of electronic business practice in different sectors in the European economy. This edition charts the dynamic rise of e-business practices in most sectors of the European economy but throws up some warnings about disparities in ICT take up and usage between EU countries.

The fully digital mammography system Mammomat Novation by Siemens Medical Solutions has now been approved for mobile screening. For the first time, breast cancer screenings are performed with digital systems built into trailer trucks. The trailers are connected to a stationary screening center where the final diagnosis is made. This type of mobile digital breast cancer screening is especially suitable for women living in rural communities or those who are more homebound than before. In Germany, women between 50 and 69 years of age are entitled to free mammography examinations every other year.

A leading international healthcare IT provider, InterComponentWare (ICW), has held its second meeting with its U.S. Advisory Board, which represents over a dozen national key opinion leaders in the healthcare and E-Health technology industries. ICW continues its strategic commitment to bring groundbreaking solutions from the European Union and deliver innovative tools to the U.S. E-Health market that empower consumer driven healthcare.

Recent contracts signed in France confirm Agfa's ORBIS as the leading solution in Europe for increasing efficiency in hospital organizations and quality of patient care. In a public tender Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU), the university hospital center of Toulouse, France, has chosen Agfa HealthCare to implement ORBIS, Agfa's leading clinical and administrative information system. The installation is scheduled to be concluded by 2011 and will affect some 10,000 users.

The German cooperation project "Digitalisation of Clinical Pathways" between the Bundesknappshaft Hospital in Bottrop and TietoEnator has been awarded with the VHitG-Award for the best IT solution in the national healthcare market. The solution supports the development of patient care processes.

Given the rise of chronic conditions and the rapid aging of the population, the methods of managing health will need to shift from traditional institutional settings to peoples' everyday environments, including the home. To enable this shift, a group of technology, healthcare and fitness companies have formed the Continua Health Alliance, an open industry group that will establish an ecosystem of connected personal health and fitness products and services, making it possible for patients, caregivers and healthcare providers to more proactively address ongoing healthcare needs.