Follow up on eHealth Tallinn 2017

Over 600 digital health experts and policy makers from Europe and across the globe gathered as part of the High-level conference 'Health in the Digital Society. Digital Society for Health' in Tallinn on 16-18 October 2017. The eHealth Tallinn conference was organised by the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs as part of Estonia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in cooperation with ECHAlliance and HIMSS Europe. The preliminary results of the EU public consultation on the future of digital health and care were presented and a Digital Health Society Declaration was announced. Khalil Rouhana, Deputy Director-General of DG Connect at the European Commission, delivered a keynote address on 'Digital Single Market - creating opportunities for digital health and care': "We want EU citizens to have full access to their health data, this is our ambition". The preliminary results of the public consultation on the Transformation of Health and Care in the Digital Single Market made it clear that EU citizens are asking for this: over 90% agree that citizens should be able to manage their own data; over 80% agree that sharing health data can help improve treatment, diagnosis & prevention of diseases; around 60% of respondents say that they do not have access to digital health services. Of these people 2 out of 3 would like to have it; respondents want the EC to take action for EU wide standards for electronic health records and interoperability based on open formats.  A joint declaration of over 100 European eHealth organisations was announced during the conference to accelerate digital innovation in healthcare. The Digital Health Society Declaration calls for concrete steps to develop eHealth in Europe and all stakeholders interested in the future of eHealth are expected to co-endorse it and to join the taskforces working on concrete actions and solutions. Read more about the outcomes of the conference here.