Technology law specialist Matthew Godfrey-Faussett of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that inconsistent regulation across different EU countries may be hindering innovations in electronic health (e-health), and in particular, mobile health (m-health).
Read more: Fragmented legal frameworks hindering 'm-health' innovations in EU, says expert
eHealth has “huge potential” to help Europe cope with its ageing population, the burden of chronic diseases and austerity health budgets, according to the European Commission's Neelie Kroes.
Addressing the 11th annual eHealth Week, held this year in Dublin, the EC's vice president responsible for its Digital Agenda plan also said that eHealth could help the region by stimulating “a strong EU market that could serve our citizens - and compete globally”.
7 million people work in the information and communication (ICT) sector in Europe. Out of the ICT workforce, just 30% are women.
The ICT sector is rapidly growing with the development of and demand for technology , creating around 120 000 new jobs every year. It has been predicted that there will be up to 900,000 unfilled ICT sector vacancies in 2015- a gap that, in the future, women could fill.
Read more: European Commission wants to see more women in digital jobs
By monitoring 'care co-ordination and telehealth' (CC&TH) initiatives in five European regions, the program will create a 'cookbook' of best practices to facilitate their deployment. This could potentially transform care for millions of chronically ill people and save healthcare systems billions of euros each year. In the EU, some 10 million people suffer from heart failure, 20 million have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease2 (COPD) and 60 million live with diabetes. Each year, these three conditions cost EU healthcare systems around €125 billion.
Read more: Pan European telehealth project to develop 'cookbook' of co-ordinated care
More evidence is accumulating that Europe has some big questions to answer when it comes to introducing IT properly to its millions of schoolchildren.
Thus only 25% of European nine-year-olds attend a school with up-to-date information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, broadband of 10 Mbps or higher and reasonable levels of connectivity -- e.g., email for students and teachers, any kind of virtual learning environments, local networks and so on, according to a European Commission study.
Read more: European Students Need Better Tech Training, Study Says