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The European Commission Information Society & Media Directorate General today released a report from the TeleHealth2007 conference.
The conference, held in Brussels, Belgium on 11 December, 2007, had the aim of inviting experts in the field to give their opinions on obstacles to the growth of telemedicine and proposed solutions to them.
Gérard Comyn, Head of Unit, ICT for Health said: “The increasing demand of citizens for the highest quality healthcare, the costs of managing chronic diseases and the need for prolonged medical care for an ageing society are major factors behind the need for innovative, cross-border telemedicine solutions in Europe.
“They enable the transfer of medical information via telephone, the internet or other networks in order to efficiently support the consultation of patients and even remote medical treatments or examinations.”
The TeleHealth2007 calls for wider use of telemedicine services, especially in cross-border settings, and calls for EU member states to overcome the challenges arising from this.
Frans de Bruïne, Director, ICT for Health said:
“The European Commission has a specific mandate to address those cross-border care issues which cannot be dealt with on a national basis alone.”
The Commission aims to hold dedicated sessions on the subject at the planned eHealth 2008 conference in Slovenia this May, and to publish a communication on “telemedicine and innovative solutions for chronic disease management” in October 2008.
