Date of release : 20-05-2005

Policy area : Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs

The Luxembourg Minister for Health and Social Security, Mars di Bartolomeo, will meet his counterparts from Europe and third countries, on Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 May, in the Norwegian city of Tromsø as part of the conference on on-line health. This third ministerial on-line conference on health comes under the Luxembourg Presidency. It is jointly organised with the European Commission and the Norwegian government.  

Apart from ministerial representatives and European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou, the conference will be attended by delegations of experts in information technology and health, from all over Europe and certain third countries. The conference also has the support of European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding.

The conference aims to promote the exchange of ideas and experience regarding the application of information and communications technologies to the public health sector, in order to help advance the implementation of technological solutions, taking inspiration from best practices in the field. It will enable us to identify and illustrate the advantages that can be drawn, for both patients and health professionals, from the new tools and electronic services.

eHealth can, in particular, help improve the efficiency, productivity and security of health systems. On-line health is also generally recognised as having a beneficial effect on individual health education, prevention of diseases and on management of the sector by public authorities.

Accompanying the conference will be an exposition showing the greatest successes achieved throughout Europe in terms of eHealth.

The day before the conference, those health Ministers who have agreed to attend will have the opportunity to informally exchange ideas on eHealth and on the challenges posed by the issues of environment and health and mental health, particularly that of adolescents."