Joint ITU-WHO Workshop on eHealth Standards and Interoperability
Geneva, 26-27 April, 2012
The Digital Agenda for Europe
Interoperability and Standards
Gisele Roesems
European Commission – DG INFSO
ICT for Health Unit
The 7 pillars of
the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE)
 Vibrant Single Market
 Trust and security
 Interoperability and standards
 Fast and Ultra fast internet access
 R&D
 Digital Literacy, inclusions eSkills
 Societal challenges (public services, health, environment)
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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DAE – Standardisation and eID
 Action 21: Propose legislation on ICT interoperability
As part of the review of EU standardisation policy, propose legal measures
on ICT interoperability to reform the rules on implementation of ICT
standards in Europe.
 Action 24: Adopt a European Interoperability Strategy and Framework
Promote interoperability by adopting in 2010 a European Interoperability
Strategy and European Interoperability Framework
 Action 77: Foster EU-wide standards, interoperability testing and
certification of eHealth systems by 2015 through stakeholder dialogue
 Action 83: Propose a Council and Parliament Decision on mutual
recognition of e-ID
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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Policy Context for EU eHealth Interoperability
Recommendation on crossborder interoperability of
electronic health record
systems
Communication on Quality
Criteria for Health related
Websites
2002
2004
Communication on eHealth - making healthcare
better for European
citizens: An action plan for
a European e-Health Area
Communication on
interoperability for
European public
services
Directive on the
application of patients’
rights in cross-border
healthcare
Council Conclusions
on Safe and efficient
healthcare through
eHealth
2008
2009
Communication on
telemedicine for the
benefit of patients,
healthcare systems
and society
2010
2011
Communication on
a Digital Agenda
for Europe
eHealth
Standardisatio
n Mandate 403
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
Article 29
Working
Party
eHealth
Action
Plan
(eHAP)
2012-2020
2012
Communication on
European Innovation
Partnership on Active
and Healthy Ageing
Communication on a
strategic vision for
European standards
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eHealth Governance Initiative and
eHealth Network play an important role
D
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P
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M
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eHealth Network of MS
Art. 14 Directive on Patients Rights (2011)
Joint Action + Thematic Network
eHealth Governance Initiative
SemanticHealthNet
project
epSOS project
(Patient summary /
ePrescription)
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
eHealth EIF
project
STORK project
(eIdentification within
eHealth domain)
CALLIOPE Network
Interoperability
Roadmap
SmartPersonalHealth
project
HITCH project
eHR QTN project
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Current projects
 epSOS

European Patient Smart Open Services (23 participating countries)

To deploy concrete cross border services for citizens travelling across Europe:
Patient Summary for EU Citizens
ePrescribing for EU Citizens
 Status: Entered in operational mode in 7 MS recently
 eHR QTN
 Thematic Network on Quality and Certification of EHR systems
 Promotion of certification (in 27MS)
 Validation of EuroRec functional statements, certification tools and procedures
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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epSOS contributions to standards
 epSOS selected and influenced international standards:
 IHE, OASIS, HL7

With the successful IHE connect-a-thons in Bratislava and Pisa, epSOS proved being
implementable and is now operational for general public

The project is working together with a new born OASIS TC in order to find feasible, realworld, and secure solutions to the 112 use case

It provided the e-Health international community with a new profile, the Cross Community
Fetch (XCF)

It is reality-checking several European engagements for the fitness of use in the e-Health
“wild”: NSL/TSL, eSignature, x-border recognition

Results are already being reused and epSOS is extensively extended by national
engagements: portals, system integration, security extension
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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eHR Qtn Recommendations: cross-border
 Strengthen national certification in order to improve average
quality and to enable in a second step the Trans-European
harmonisation, improving comparability and portability of
content.
 Promote equivalence of certificates across Europe by validating
at European level both the functional descriptive statements of
EuroRec and the IHE profiles.
 Consider the possibility to create a cross-border “Register of
Quality Labelled or Certified Clinical Software”, offering
information about the products (complete EHR systems as well
a software modules) and documentation about the certification
process.
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
Brussels, March 30, 2012
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SemanticHealthNet
 Framework Program 7 Call 7: A Network of Excellence on semantic
interoperability and European Health Infostructure
 Engage leaders and organisations to define and implement a
research agenda on semantic interoperability
 European and international organizations in
 Medical terminology
 Record architecture
 Medical logic and workflow
 http://www.semantichealthnet.eu
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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CIP Call 6 Objective 3.6: Adoption and taking up of
standards and profiles for eHealth interoperability
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Funding Instrument: Thematic Network – 1 M€
Drive adoption of interoperability standards and specifications at
European level;
Drive adoption of eHealth Interoperability Testing Guidelines.
Drive closure of key gaps in interoperability testing tools.
Drive adoption of a two-level labelling and certification process
(European level and national/project level)
Ensure that all necessary phases to attain eHealth interoperability shall
be taken into account and addressed properly.
Propose and implement solutions or process improvement to address
barriers to standards adoption (as described in eHealth-Interop report
as a result of M403 phase I).
Include relevant organisations and consortia recognised by the market
or by regulation and having demonstrated, well established and several
years experience in standards or specifications development, testing or
quality labelling.
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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Thank you !
Digital Agenda for Europe
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda
ICT for Health
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/ehealth
Hitch Roadmap
http://www.hitch-project.eu/
EIP On active and healthy ageing
http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm?section=active-healthy-ageing
epSOS
www.epsos.eu
SemanticHealthNet
http://www.semantichealthnet.eu
eHR Qtn
http://ehrqtn.eurorec.org/
email: gisele.roesems@ec.europa.eu
EC DG INFSO - ICT for Health
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