The European Commission is putting forward a set of measures to increase the availability of data in the EU, building on previous initiatives to boost the free flow of non-personal data in the Digital Single Market. Data-driven innovation is a key enabler of market growth, job creation, particularly for SMEs and startups, and the development of new technologies.

The Horizon 2020 funded KONFIDO Action concluded its activities related to User Requirement Analysis. This initial phase of the Action entailed a gap analysis study about secure and interoperable solutions at the systemic level, the definition and analysis of user scenarios, the user requirements elicitation, and an intense interaction with the KONFIDO end-users (both patients/citizens and healthcare professionals) for the identification of barriers and facilitators concerning eHealth acceptance coupled with cybersecurity technologies.

There is an increasing amount of self-help tools among people with diabetes. They use apps, social media and various cloud-based solutions to cope. Now, e-health researchers will make guidelines for evaluating the apps and online resources they use.

European Commission has put forward a proposal to boost cooperation amongst EU Member States for assessing health technology. Greater transparency will empower patients, by ensuring their access to information on the added clinical value of new technology that could potentially benefit them.

New technology is bringing the power of augmented reality into clinical practice. The system, called ProjectDR, allows medical images such as CT scans and MRI data to be displayed directly on a patient's body in a way that moves as the patient does.

The Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London today announces the award of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to accelerate research into new integrated technology systems for accurately measuring dietary intake. The grant of $1.5M will fund key investigation projects until April 2020, supporting the research and development of passive dietary intake monitoring tools and wearables that can support nutritional studies in low and middle-income countries.

Scottish health boards covering a population of 2.2 million people are able to share patient information now that a two-year project to create a regional portal has been completed. Five West of Scotland health boards are covered by the project to link their Orion Health portals, with NHS Dumfries and Galloway the latest to join in July. Clinicians can now click on a simple link within their own health board's portal to access the regional portal links, from where they can view test results and other information.