Research

European Commission launches new Health Portal

In 2005 at least one third of the European adult population, 130 million EU citizens, browsed the web in search of information on health. However, searching for health-related information is not always easy. Researchers can be confronted with thousands of sites, many of them complex, and it can be hard to know which are reliable or up to date. To help European citizens answer their health questions, the Commission has today launched the "Health-EU Portal". The launch event took place in Malaga, Spain, within the Commission-sponsored "eHealth" conference.

Start of the Test Phase for the Health Card in Germany

"It was a good idea, perfectly clear and so obvious. Many dangerous side effects could be prevented if each physician knew all drugs his patients are currently taking. So many unnecessary examinations could be avoided if physicians could inform themselves about all the examination results their colleagues obtained before them." These are the arguments of the electronic health card's advocates, and they are right. "If this health care data were collected and transmitted electronically and in a standardized way, millions of people could receive better and less expensive treatment" , is what the Financial Times Deutschland wrote in an otherwise critical comment on the introduction of the electronic health card in Germany.

Bioinformatics Grid Application for life science

The European Commission promotes the Bioinformatics Grid Application for life science (BioinfoGRID) project. The project aims to connect many European computer centres in order to carry out Bioinformatics research and to develop new applications in the sector using a network of services based on futuristic Grid networking technology that represents the natural evolution of the Web.

More specifically the BioinfoGRID project will make research in the fields of Genomics, Proteomics, Transcriptomics and applications in Molecular Dynamics much easier, reducing data calculation times thanks to the distribution of the calculation at any one time on thousands of computers across Europe and the world.

What users really want from online public services

How do public administrations actually know what end users want and expect of their public services so as to set about satisfying their needs? An exhaustive European-wide survey of citizens' real needs regarding services such as e-government, e-health and e-learning, goes a long way towards answering this question.

CORDIS focus

Bringing together selected articles from the daily CORDIS News service, the CORDIS focus Newsletter is published in six languages (Spanish, German, English, French, Italian and Polish) and, for the time being, on a monthly basis.

Research Infrastructures - GÉANT and grids

Unit F3 "Research Infrastructure" supports the provision of computer and communications infrastructures of the highest quality and performance to Europe's researchers, namely by establishing a high-capacity and high-speed communications network for all researchers in Europe (GÉANT) and specific high performance Grid- enabled advanced test-beds, exploiting the benefits of a strong co-ordination between Research Infrastructures and the IST and an enlarged co-operation with corresponding national and international initiatives.

i2010 High Level Group

European Union Member States met for the first time to discuss the future of the i2010 strategy. The i2010 High Level Group held its inaugural meeting on 20 April 2006. The Group was established following a Commission Decision and is composed of one representative per Member State at Director General level. The Group decided to work, as a priority, on Convergence and content issues and on Trust and confidence, and to delegate the continuation of the work on eGovernment, eHealth and eInclusion to specific sub-groups.

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