The European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate General published the report of the TeleHealth2007 conference. This conference provided a first overview and introduction to all the reasons why the European Commission is beginning to explore the possibilities for a future action plan for Europe on telemedicine. It would be published in the context of a Commission Communication. Whereas it is understood that the organisation of healthcare is solely an issue for each Member State itself, telemedicine services have the potential to be used in cross-border settings. Indeed, as this conference showed, they are already being used in many cross-border contexts. The European Commission has a specific mandate to address those cross-border care issues which cannot be dealt with on a national basis alone.
The overall objective of such a Communication proposal would be to support wider deployment of telemedicine services, with a particular focus on cross-border settings. Thus, the main aim would be to encourage or enable Member States, according to their specific needs, to take advantage of the potential benefits of telemedicine. A second aim of the proposed Communication would be to encourage the Member States to deal with, as a common dilemma, important challenges in cross-border care that are associated with the practice of telemedicine. The Communication would be likely to propose specific actions that meet the overall objective.
A set of next steps will be facilitated by the European Commission. It will include an assessment of the prospective rationale of such a Communication, its main focus, its key messages, the extent to which it is an 'information-related' style of Communication or an 'action-oriented' Communication; and, if the latter, a coverage of its potential action points. These could, for example, be in areas such as infrastructure, interoperability, procurement of innovative services, legal issues particularly relating to liability, market issues particularly relating to certification and labelling and, last but not least, assessment, evaluation, and education challenges.
The immediate steps in the proposed calendar include:
- April 2008: A workshop which, it is proposed will be smaller in size than the December 11, 2007 conference and will focus on the involvement and interest of European industry.
- May 2008: Dedicated sessions to be held at the proposed eHealth 2008 high-level conference on eHealth to be held in Slovenia in May 6-8, 2008 and which will focus on discussions with policy-makers. Attendance by invitation only.
- October 2008: The actual policy document ("Communication") on the provisionally-entitled "telemedicine and innovative solutions for chronic disease management" to be published under the umbrella of the French Presidency of the European Union.
- Winter 2008-2009: The policy document to be discussed at a later stage in the various Councils.
Download TeleHealth2007 Conference Report (.pdf, 660 KB)
Related news articles:
- eHealth Topic of the Month - Telemedicine
- TeleHealth 2007 - Telemedicine and Innovative Technologies for Chronic Disease Management in Europe
- Public Consultation: EU-wide Telemedicine and Innovative Technologies for Chronic Disease Management
For further information:
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