Global Observatory for eHealth series - Volume 5.
Given that privacy of the doctor-patient relationship is at the heart of good health care, and that the electronic health record (EHR) is at the heart of good eHealth practice, the question arises: Is privacy legislation at the heart of the EHR? The second global survey on eHealth conducted by the Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) set out to answer that question by investigating the extent to which the legal frameworks in the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) address the need to protect patient privacy in EHRs as health care systems move towards leveraging the power of EHRs to deliver safer, more efficient, and more accessible health care.

The compendium of new and emerging technologies that address global health concerns has been created as a neutral platform for technologies which are likely to be suitable for use in low-resource settings. It is released to encourage the dialogue between ministries of health, procurement officers, donors, technology developers, manufacturers, clinicians, academics and the general public. In doing so, WHO aims at raising awareness of the pressing need for appropriate design solutions, and for further development and technology dissemination.

This resource book provides an overview of the set of Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) research projects managed by the ICT for Health unit of the Information Society and Media General Directorate, which are funded under the 6th and 7th (FP6 - FP7) framework Programme for Research and Development. At the core of the VPH lies the idea of translating all functions of the human body into a coherent set of multi-scale computer models. The scales of modelling span spatially from the whole body down to the cells and the proteins they synthesise, and temporally from years to microseconds.

Changing demographics, an increase in the number of chronically ill patients and the advances in technology have brought healthcare systems to the limits of their performance. The key to sustainable healthcare lies in coordinating care delivery processes. Together with its partners, ICW strives to efficiently provide the needed IT-supported processes for providing the best possible level of care and at the highest possible level of cost efficiency:

Previous reviews have expressed concerns about the quality of telemedicine studies. There is debate about shortcomings and appropriate methodologies. The aim of this review of systematic reviews of telemedicine is to summarize methodologies used in telemedicine research, discuss knowledge gaps and recommendations and suggest methodological approaches for further research.

Global Observatory for eHealth series - Volume 4.
The Internet has moved beyond an educational and research tool that served as a social network for a few elite scientists and has been transformed into a commerce and health care juggernaut accessible to much of the planet. However, the accessibility of this resource has not been unencumbered by complication and challenge. Internet pharmacies demonstrated potential early on as a hub within a wider set of eHealth services, but has since been mired in doubts regarding transparency, fraud, product quality, and even its viability as an ethical business model.

In December 2009, Member States adopted the Council Conclusions on Safe and efficient healthcare through eHealth1, in which the Council specifically called on the Commission to "update the eHealth Action Plan". A public consultation is a mandatory exercise to give stakeholders the opportunity to give their opinion on any important European initiative. The public consultation was launched on 31 March 2011 and closed on 30 May 2011. The consultation sought to validate four proposed objectives and to explore possible actions to be undertaken in next years. The four objectives proposed were: