The ISO-HL7 PHR International Survey team invites to participate in a survey of the international uses of Personal Health Records and Personal Health Informatics. The goal of this survey is to inform and update the standards-development community of the current needs, desires, and trends surrounding the electronic Personal Health Record (PHR).

Transinsight, provider of knowledge-based software solutions, has released a new online version of the well-known life-science search engine GoPubMed. This, the first semantic search engine, reduces search time by up to 90%. By sorting search results it enables scientists to answer biomedical questions in completely new way.

European Commission plans to publish in September 2008 a communication on "telemedicine and innovative technologies for chronic disease management". This communication will be the culmination of a process starting with the current consultation aiming at gathering expertise in all Member States.

Europe has taken "another step in the realisation of the European Research Area, this time to the benefit of SMEs", according to EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik, who helped to launch EUREKA's Eurostars programme. The programme will provide financial support, from both EU and the EUREKA member country funds, to Europe's young and innovative companies, described by Mr Potocnik as the 'lifeblood' of Europe's economy.

In the week that saw 50 years since the beginning of the space race, UK researchers have underlined the relevance that space technologies can have for other areas with the announcement of new research on detecting tuberculosis (TB) using technologies developed for space missions.

WHO and its partners called for increased research to improve patient safety. They emphasized the need for intensified research at an international conference opened recently in Porto, Portugal. The conference on Patient safety research: shaping the European agenda will examine evidence showing that harm from medical care poses a substantial burden in terms of suffering and death in Europe and around the world.

Some 37 national grid projects have teamed up as part of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) to set up a distributed computing network that will enable laboratories to collaborate via thousands of computers merged into one supercomputer. The project is bringing together national experts in order to set up the design of a sustainable European Grid Infrastructure.