In December 2010, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the European Commission's DG CONNECT, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation surrounding eHealth/Health IT. The MoU was signed to demonstrate the parties’ shared dedication to strengthen transatlantic cooperation in eHealth and Health Information Technologies.
In the spring of 2013, DG CONNECT and HHS published a first Roadmap of specific MoU actions. Since then, this Roadmap has guided their activities focusing on two priority areas:
Standards development to advance the development and use of internationally recognized standards supporting transnational interoperability of electronic health information and communication technology, and
Workforce development to develop and expand the skilled Health IT workforce in Europe and the US.
End of 2015, it was agreed between DG CONNECT and the US HHS to add a third priority area: 'Transatlantic eHealth/Health IT Innovation Ecosystems'. This work stream aims to encourage innovation in the eHealth/Health IT industry and ensure linkages to the other two Roadmap work streams. This has been described in the draft roadmap that is now the subject of this consultation.
The objective of the consultation is to gather comments and inputs which will be used to finalise the update of the Roadmap and to validate it.
Views are sought from Member States' authorities, businesses, academia, organisations involved in eHealth, health professionals and any other interested stakeholders.
The consultation is open from 22.12.2015 until 15.03.2016. You could find the draft roadmap 2015 and take part in the discussions here.