European consumers have been a long-neglected piece of the strategic puzzle for most marketers at health and pharmaceutical companies. Yet signs increasingly point to the degree to which European consumers are, in fact, researching health information and treatment options, and ultimately taking action as a result of those information searches.

Collexis (OTCBB: CLXS), a leading developer of high-definition search and discovery software, and their German partner, SyynX Solutions, announced they will preview a new life sciences social networking site to representatives from global book publishing and multimedia companies at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

Joined by nationally recognized medical providers, health-management device manufacturers and patient advocacy organizations, Microsoft Corp. launched Microsoft® HealthVault, a software and services platform aimed at helping people better manage their health information. The company outlined its vision for ways that HealthVault can bring the health and technology industries together to create new applications, services and connected devices that help people manage and monitor their personal health information, including weight loss and disease management, such as for diabetes.

At the 48th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Research in Prague, Czech Republic, Dräger presents its new Infinity® VF7 software, which enables Infinity patient monitors to communicate with Dräger incubators, infant warmers and ventilation devices. The new software enables caregivers to view vital signs, respiration and thermo regulation data from multiple devices together on one screen at the bedside.

ETIAM Corp. a leading medical imaging software publisher presents a new version of its automated CD and DVD distribution system for medical images. Open LiteBox, the leading application for importing external DICOM media to PACS now provides the fastest and most cost-effective mean to create and label DICOM CDs and DVDs automatically.

In July 2007, HIMSS EMEA launched its first Health IT Community forum on XING, a unique online platform with 1.5 million members in over 190 countries networking in at least 16 different languages. This step into the online networking world is part of the HIMSS EMEA mission of leading change in the healthcare information and management systems field through knowledge sharing, advocacy, collaboration, innovation and community affiliations.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced two major scientific achievements in the field of nanotechnology that could one day lead to new kinds of devices and structures built from a few atoms or molecules. Although still far from making their way into products, these breakthroughs will enable scientists at IBM and elsewhere to continue driving the field of nanotechnology, the exploration of building structures and devices out of ultra-tiny, atomic-scale components.