Brussels, 11/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission, particularly Commissioner for the Digital Strategy Neelie Kroes and Commissioner for Health and Consumers John Dalli, have welcomed a declaration by the Hungarian Presidency on e-health, which was published on Tuesday 10 May as part of online health week in Budapest (10-12 May). “I congratulate the Presidency for adopting this ambitious e-health declaration that urges member states to take concrete steps to deploy e-health systems and to set specific targets for improving telemonitoring and management of chronic diseases”, said Kroes. “I strongly believe that member states have much to gain from greater cooperation on e-health”, Dalli added.
The Presidency declaration defends a common, long-term vision of health care and presents a raft of priorities. For example, the right for patients to receive appropriate healthcare in any member state and greater development of telemedicine and telemonitoring, which will help to rationalise healthcare in many areas, particularly care to patients suffering from chronic heart disease and diabetic patients. The declaration urges the member states to guarantee the entry into force as quickly as possible of the directive on cross-border healthcare, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 28 February. More specifically, the declaration calls on the member states and stakeholders to: (1) support and facilitate the deployment of telemedicine, particularly for treatment designed to treat known diseases and treatments with proven efficacy; (2) develop and adopt guidelines for healthcare professionals, with the objective of developing innovative tools to facilitate the setting in place of integrated healthcare services; (3) develop joint measures to achieve the interoperability of online health systems; (4) take initiatives for data analysis for the purposes of research and public health, whilst guaranteeing the protection of personal and private data; (5) agree on a sample of common data on chronic diseases, to be collected and exchanged between the member states. (I.L./transl.fl)