The database of the eHealth ERA Project coordinated by empirica includes a number of extended country reports. They provide details of national eHealth strategy and implementation activities in Europe.

Following a year of research and development, the EU-funded BRIDGE project is now preparing five pilots to test Electronic Product Code (EPC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies.

The pilots, scheduled to start in September, will test RFID across several sectors of industry including retail, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, distribution and logistics, and services.

RIDE is a roadmap project for interoperability of eHealth systems leading to recommendations for actions and to preparatory actions at the European level. This roadmap will prepare the ground for future actions as envisioned in the action plan of the eHealth Communication COM 356 by coordinating various efforts on eHealth interoperability in member states and the associated states.

53 cases have been selected as finalists for the third successive European eGovernment Awards, organised by the European Commission. All applicants have been invited to exhibit at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference 2007 on 19-21 September in Lisbon. In addition the 53 selected cases are invited to participate in the Workshop for Finalists on 26-27 July hosted by the European Commission in Brussels and organised by the European eGovernment Awards Consortium.

The European Commission has launched a consultation on responsible research in nanosciences and nanotechnologies.

The consultation is part of the Commission's plan to suggest that the EU Member States sign up to a Code of Conduct for this emerging area of science. A broad spectrum of society is addressed by the consultation, from the scientific community and industry to civil society, policy-makers, media and the general public.

The main aim of the SINCERE Project is to involve SMEs to be active in the eHealth sector by providing them with knowledge, networking and sharing knowledge with other players, future roadmaps and innovation strategies.

SINCERE will bring SMEs closer to researchers in the eHealth field, all with the objective of preparing them for participation in Framework Programme or other research projects supported by the European Commission.

Expert Systems seeks original manuscripts for a Special Issue on Advances in Medical Decision Support Systems scheduled to appear in October 2008.

The foundation for any medical decision support is the medical knowledge base which contains the necessary rules and facts. This knowledge needs to be acquired from information and data in the fields of interest, such as medicine.