The following statements were extracted from the Declaration on eHealth endorsed April 20 by Health Ministers from 27 member states of the European Union.

The declaration identified six areas of agreement:

• National well-organized eHealth infrastructures are prerequisite for cross-border solutions.
• European standardization will open up market opportunities.
• Existing national roadmaps must be taken into account.
• Implementation of eHealth services requires greater synergies with research and education.
• Agreement on common standards by all EU member states is essential.
• The eHealth industry and other stakeholders must be involved.

The Declaration noted that member states and the European Commission "declare their intention to take steps toward implementing a road map for cross-border eHealth services."

It said eHealth will enable higher-quality, effective healthcare that is safe, empowering and accessible for patients, and cost-effective for governments. A reliable organizational and technical framework also will support a growing market for European industry.

The Declaration went on: to provide Europeans with a continuity of healthcare that is accessible across borders, high-quality and efficient, the European Union will build on existing national and regional healthcare systems and services.

"Given their citizens' increasing mobility, the European Member States and the European Commission commit themselves to engaging in this joint initiative," it said. "The immediate next steps in this phased and structured collaboration will involve starting carefully planned pilot activities.

These large-scale pilots will test the application of improved patient summaries in different health contexts such as medical emergencies and prescription dispensing, according to the Declaration. "They will be based on a variety of carefully-prepared descriptions of common patient contexts such as chronic care and care for Europe's ageing adults. The participants will be involved in systems development, design, prototyping and validation."

As part of this joint initiative, the Declaration said, "progress will be made in relation to improving interoperability; use of electronic health records; deployment of research results; and development and coordination of eHealth standards essential to cross-border applications. This European-wide cooperation on electronic health services will lead to the successful formation of the European health information space."

— John Brosky, Contributing Writer