OpenMedicine - for the safety of medicines and patients

OpenMedicine is an ambitious attempt to support health policy development across European countries and globally in a matter that may affect all of us, since it impacts safety and quality of healthcare in general, and cross-border healthcare in particular.

To better enable cross-border healthcare delivery, particularly the exchange of ePrescriptions and safe dispensation of prescribed medicinal products, the openMedicine global initiative advances the unique identification of medicinal products (MPs) and thereby patient safety in cross-border settings.

Towards digital health - electronic information for safe use of medicinal products

European Economic and Social Committee published on 16 September 2015 an Opinion on:

"Towards digital health - electronic information for safe use of medicinal products"  (own-initiative opinion) [Rapporteur: Renate Heinisch].

On 22 January 2015, the European Economic and Social Committee, acting under Rule 29(2) of its Rules of Procedure, decided to draw up an own-initiative opinion on Towards digital health – electronic information for safe use of medicinal products (own-initiative opinion).

The Section for the Single Market, Production and Consumption, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 14 July 2015.

eHealth interoperability: The scene is now clearly shaped

Last July, the European Commission recognised 27 profiles and standards for healthcare systems to be developed through public procurement. This is a step forward for reaching the European Digital Single Market in eHealth.

Many countries in Europe are developing eHealth strategies in order to offer their citizens a better quality of care within a financially sustainable healthcare system. The population is ageing and has specific needs, whilst mobility is increasing in Europe.

These challenges are addressed with the development of new technologies that support the necessary and required connection of healthcare ICT used in healthcare organisations and at regional, national and cross-border levels.

In this respect, a common European Interoperability Framework was defined and published by the European Commission in 2012. It describes an initial set of use cases and a selection of 27 Profiles and Standards.

After an evaluation process and consultation of the European multi-stakeholder platform for ICT, the European Commission has now identified and recognised these 27 so called IHE ("Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise") Profiles for procurement.