The European Commission, Directorate General Information Society and Media, supports the eHealth ERA Coordination Action project to contribute to the coordination of Member States' eHealth strategy formulation and implementation as well as eHealth-related research and technology development. The project surveys and analyses eHealth roadmaps and programmes across Europe, identifies common priority issues, and develops suggestions for joint actions.

This document is a sector study by e-Business W@tch, focusing on Hospital Activities (see section 2 for an introduction to this sector). It describes how hospitals use information and communication technologies (ICT) for conducting business, assesses the impact of this development for hospitals and the health sector as a whole, and indicates possible implications for policy. Analysis is based on literature, interviews, case studies and a survey among decision-makers in European hospitals about the ICT use of their hospital.

Report of the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth
The latest report from the Global Observatory for eHealth, entitled "Building Foundations for eHealth" will be officially launched at two parallel events. The first in Bangkok, Thailand, during the Prince Mahidol Award Conference, and the second at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

One of the key problems in healthcare informatics is the lack of interoperability among different healthcare information systems. Interoperability can be investigated in different categories in the eHealth domain, such as the interoperability of the messages exchanged between healthcare applications, interoperability of Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs), interoperability of patient identifiers, coding terms, clinical guidelines and healthcare business processes.

The final version of the Work Programme for ICT research in FP7 for 2007 and 2008, as agreed by the Programme Committee, is now available for download.

A Theme for research and development under the specific programme "Cooperation" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013) of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities.

When seeking funding for their research, many researchers and research managers write proposals to the European Commission each year. Typically, the total amount asked for in response to a Call exceeds the monies available by a factor of 5 to 10, depending on the Programme. Roughly this implies an average success rate of 10%-20%.

A great deal of information is available and easily accessible through the Internet - mostly free of charge. This information is published either directly by the Commission services or by associations, universities, and consultants.

FP7 is the short name for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. This is the EU's main instrument for funding research in Europe and it will run from 2007-2013. FP7 is also designed to respond to Europe's employment needs, competitiveness and quality of life.