To help fight childhood obesity and other child diseases, the European Commission has awarded 12 million euros to a medical research project that will use mathematical models to improve the treatment of children. According to recent data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of overweight infants and children in Europe has steadily risen from 1990 to 2008.

Every day, approximately 3000 new articles are published in biomedical journals. That averages to more than 2 articles every minute. Managing this large amount of data is a challenge in itself. Yet, ensuring that this wealth of knowledge is used for the sake of the patients in a timely manner is an even more demanding task for both computer scientists and biomedical experts.

HIMSS Analytics Europe, subsidiary of HIMSS Europe, awarded yesterday four new hospitals in Europe with Stage 6 Award during the forth edition of eHealth Week, that is taking place in Dublin from the 13th to 15th of May.

A declaration by the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU committing Member States to developing eHealth ecosystems that could contribute to the reform of health systems has been welcomed by European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Health Commissioner Tonio Borg. The Irish Presidency presented the Declaration at the Ministerial eHealth High Level Conference in Dublin on May 13th.

The Network of Excellence on Engineering Secure Future Internet Software Services and Systems (NESSoS) is an EC co-funded project that aims at constituting and integrating a long lasting research community on engineering secure software-based services and systems. The new roadmap and research agenda was published in February 2013.

Media reports about substances that are supposedly hazardous to health may cause suggestible people to develop symptoms of a disease even though there is no objective reason for doing so. This is the conclusion of a study of the phenomenon known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Those affected report experiencing certain symptoms on exposure to electromagnetic waves, such as those emitted by cell phones, and these take the form of physical reactions.

At the start of its 'European Month of the Brain' initiative, the European Commission has earmarked some €150 million of funding for 20 new international brain research projects. It will bring the total EU investment in brain research since 2007 to over €1.9 billion. The 'European Month of the Brain' (#brainmonth) will highlight European research and innovation in the area of neuroscience, cognition and related areas through over 50 events across Europe this May.