22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Open Health Forum organised by the European Commission on 7/8 November looked at healthcare challenges and put forward suggestions for the EU's future strategy in this area. Discussions focussed on healthcare, the role of patients, patient information and safety, assessing progress in reforming EU drugs legislation. Work still needs to be done in monitoring the effectiveness of legislation and improve legislation currently being prepared - the review of the directive on medical equipment and the upcoming regulation on innovative medicines produced using cell and tissue engineering. More than 350 organisations representing patients associations, healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies and national healthcare experts attend the Open Health Forum each year, which is used as a sounding board for health promotion in Europe. The rest of the time, dialogue between the European Commission and the above organisations is channelled through a smaller forum of four dozen organisations representing most of the others.