Research

Moving eHealth Beyond the "e": EHTEL Celebrates its 10th Anniversary and Looks Ahead

The past decade has been the witness of quite noticeable changes of health care by Health ICT. Nowadays, eHealth symbolises the modernisation of healthcare in support of quality of care, empowerment of patients, higher efficiency and also increased health professional job satisfaction. This has not happened by itself, rather a synergy of strategic plans, political commitments and technical developments was needed.

EU Project Saves Time and Money with CUSTOM-FIT Products

Global competition for the creation and manufacture of products is strong and calls for innovative action. Europeans are showing their prowess in this area by progressing from resource-based manufacturing to knowledge-based manufacturing, as well as from mass produced, single-use goods to new added value, custom-made and sustainable products.

European eHealth Services Standard for Cross-Border Healthcare Provision Agreed

Two European projects developing IT-based services for cross-border healthcare provision, TEN4Health and NetC@rds, have agreed on a common European web service specification supporting standardised messaging to link hospitals and other health care providers with health insurance organisations and with national healthcare IT infrastructure.

EU Funded Project to Develop Image-Guided Localized Drug Delivery

The EU-funded SonoDrugs project is developing tiny, image-guided capsules that will convey drug doses through the bloodstream to the site of disease, where they will be activated by ultrasound pulses. The new technology, which focuses on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer, is expected to vastly improve therapeutic efficiency.

Commission Takes Steps to Promote Patient Safety in Europe

The Commission has recently adopted a Communication and proposal for a Council Recommendation with specific actions that Member States can take, either individually, collectively or with the Commission, to improve the safety of patients. Each year, in the EU, between 8% and 12% of patients admitted to hospitals suffer harm from the healthcare they receive, including from healthcare associated infections. Much of that harm is preventable.

Next Generation Diagnostic Tool May Transform Patient Outcomes

During the 12th Annual Scientific Sessions (January 29 to February 1, 2009) of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), the world's major international society for cardiovascular imaging, the role of perfusion imaging in clinical decision making will be refined.

EU-funded Researchers Tackle Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide; each year some 60,000 women in Europe alone are diagnosed with the disease, and around half of these cases will prove fatal.Supported by the EU with EUR 2.63 million in funding, the ASSIST project aimed to fix this problem by creating technological links between medical centres specialising in cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment, as well as fuelling data exchange and building a larger data repository.

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