p-medicine is a 4-year Integrated Project co-funded under the European Community's 7th Framework Programme aiming at developing new tools, IT infrastructure and VPH models to accelerate personalized medicine for the benefit of the patient.

The Digital Agenda Scoreboard gives essential data and in-depth analysis of progress so far with the implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE). The Scoreboard is the first to be published by the European Commission showing the performance of the EU and Member States in delivering on the agreed targets after the first year of existence of the DAE.

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.