An EU eHealth Task Force to assess the role of information and communications technologies (ICT) in health and social care and to suggest ways for ICT to speed up innovation in healthcare to the benefit of patients, carers and the healthcare sector has met for the first time in Budapest on 10th May, chaired by Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

A Hungarian Presidency Declaration urging Member States to deploy eHealth services to the benefit of patients, healthcare workers and national healthcare systems has been welcomed by European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Health Commissioner John Dalli.

More than 90% of European hospitals are connected to broadband, 80% have electronic patient record systems, but only 4% of hospitals grant patients online access to their electronic records, according to the results of a survey conducted for the European Commission.

Six research projects selected to compete for two top spots in the area of research into future and emerging technologies (FET) have been announced by the European Commission at the FET11 conference and exhibition in Budapest.

The number of Europeans aged 65+ is expected to increase by 45% between 2008 and 2030, and even further to over 30% of the population by 2060. This major challenge needs to be tackled at EU level to help older Europeans enjoy an active and healthy life.

Failure to address interoperability has been identified as a major challenge for the growing personal health solutions market, states the conclusions of the SmartPersonalHealth project report published today.

The European Commission is seeking citizens' and other interested parties' views on how the EU can help to deliver widespread benefits to the quality and efficiency of healthcare by applying information and communication technologies (ICT) (so-called 'eHealth').