The success of eHealth in Europe depends on how patient-oriented applications are. Ilias Iakovidis, Acting Head of the unit "ICT for Health," DG Information Society and Media, European Commission, talks to HealthTech Wire about how this year’s eHealth conference can contribute to this goal and why 2010 will be an interesting year for eHealth in Europe.

What do you consider to be the highlight of this year’s Ministerial Conference on eHealth?

Ilias Iakovidis: This year’s conference is exceptional in many ways. For the first time, the European eHealth Conference is partnering the World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition. It means that we can bring together high-level policy makers and industry representatives from all over Europe. This is absolutely crucial for the large-scale deployment of eHealth.

What about healthcare professionals?

Iliais Iakovidis: True, we obviously need healthcare professionals for eHealth. These are people who are very busy caring for patients, and we do not actually expect them to come to an event like this in large numbers. But we have to address them, and the European Commission is doing so by organizing and contributing to eHealth sessions at the major medical conferences. A few weeks ago, for example, there was an eHealth session of the European Commission at the European Conference of Radiology in Vienna. This was highly successful. So we are getting the users on board as well.

Could you give a brief overview of relevant conference topics?

Ilias Iakovidis: The one thing that this conference has made very clear is that we have left the project stage. For the first time, we have had a whole conference track on the demonstrative benefits of eHealth solutions. This is a reality, and it is measurable. We no longer talk about visions. The second important aspect of this year’s conference was that it clearly focused on the patient. If we cannot provide useful patient tools for eHealth scenarios, we will never convince the public.

Could you be more specific: How exactly can patients be involved in eHealth so that we have a truly patient-oriented approach?

Ilias Iakovidis: There are examples of how to do it all over Europe. Denmark, for example, or the UK. Both have developed national portal solutions that not only accumulate medical data but also offer useful applications that make life easier for patients. This can be a very simple but useful tool, like an online booking service. But it can also be more complex, for example tools for chronic disease support. Looking to the future, I can also imagine tools that personalize healthcare by taking into account individual predispositions. We are entering into the sphere of preventive medicine here, with enormous potential for eHealth and for patient participation.

A year ago, the European eHealth Governance Initiative was called into action. How helpful was this?

Ilias Iakovidis: I consider this to be an extremely important step, since the group brings together high-level representatives of the national ministries of health for the first time on a regular basis. Let me put it this way: it adds some degree of political interoperability to our technical interoperability efforts. Consequently, the European Commission – both DG INFSO and DG SANCO – supports this group with €500,000 each and will continue to do so.

Could you give a brief update on the epSOS project and on the EC’s telemedicine initiative?

Ilias Iakovidis: The interim results of the epSOS project are truly remarkable. Technical specifications of the European Patient Summary and the European ePrescription are about to be published. Pilot projects will start as scheduled in early 2011. When it comes to telemedicine, another large-scale project, Renewing Health, is currently being initiated under the leadership of the Veneto region. The aim is to set up a kind of international telemedicine study with participating regions all over Europe. This study will provide high-quality data on patient benefits and thus provide a foundation for politicians when implementing telemedicine infrastructures.

This is a HealthTech Wire VoiceIt interview, republished with permission.

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