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E- health

The technological progress, especially the access to the Internet caused and enabled the development of

many spheres of life as well as services. In everyday life, everybody more often uses the internet services,

not only the ones related to the entertainment or online shopping. The internet users use many

applications, which make everyday activities easier and save time, therefore the field of medical services

must undergo this kind of metamorphosis as well.

E-health in EU

Healthcare systems are becoming increasingly dependent on Information and Communication

Technologies (ICTs) to deliver top-quality care to European citizens. The EUs e-Health action plan sets

out a clear road map for this sector. In March 2011, European Commission launched a consultation on the

e-Health Action Plan (eHAP) 2012-2020. This second e-Health action plan (eHAP) will provide an

opportunity to consolidate the actions which have been addressed to date, take them a step further where

possible and provide a longer term vision for e-Health in Europe, in the context of the EU 2020 Strategy,

the Digital Agenda for Europe as well as Innovation Union and its associated European Innovation

Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (europa.eu 2012).

The plan sets out the steps needed for widespread adoption of e-Health technologies across the EU by

2010. Faster rollout of high-speed internet access, which so many tools are based on, is a crucial

development if we are to fully exploit the widespread benefits of e-Health. Those groups in the society

which are the least likely to have an easy access to the internet, such as the elderly, disabled or

unemployed are often those who need the health services the most. This means that promoting the

accessibility of e-Health services, particularly to such groups, is a top priority of the action plan

(europa.eu 2012).

In order to bring the assumptions of the plans to the actual operation, the authorities might take the

advantage of some solutions which when adopted will undoubtedly make the e-health procedures feasible

and widely used by anybody.

Trends in e-health systems

The idea of innovation and investment in the research aspect has always been a crucial part in the

development of any field. E-health is no exception. Innovations within the e-health field are possible only

through the researches identifying the essential problems when it comes to modernizing and restructuring

the system of e-health. Currently the researches must focus on personalization of e-health services and

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data, diagnostic and monitoring systems. The upcoming years will definitely take the advantage of the

results of 5th and 6th Framework Program of EU to promote the demonstration programmes which refer

to the use of e-health services and of 10th Program results to provide patients and professionals mobility

by the use of the analogical services in various countries.

The development of IT technologies undoubtedly encourages the integration and being able to gather so

much knowledge changes humans expectations and require that authorities face these demands.

Therefore the decision made by the EU member countries contributed vastly to patients equal access to

health care system and economics of it. The complete integration at the EU level shall be only possible

through implementing the intelligent environment in order to reach efficient monitoring of health system

and greater patients independence i.e.: wireless communication with the system supporting health and

disabled people as well as enabling doctors to make decisions following data received from the

continuous monitoring. The necessary elements as to introducing the e-health ideas which encourage the

integration at the European level, are benchmarking and the promotion of successful developments using

the tools such as case studies research12 Among those developments one should name for example the

biosensors which can be installed into the so called intelligent clothes as well as the software supporting

the practitioners to take up the most accurate decisions on treatment thereby securing the patients. The

meaning of networks of cooperation within the fields of bio-informatics and genomics has been

increasingly growing having the target to create the e-health systems encouraging the individualization of

diagnoses.