European Commission teams up with so2say on media campaign

Wednesday 7th October 2009

The European Commission, ICT for Health department of Directorate General Information Society and Media, is to launch a new information campaign designed to provide journalists with comprehensive information on the results and real-life impact of eHealth projects supported by the European Commission.

The campaign is part of the European Commission's overall strategy to promote research activities in the field of eHealth within R&D Framework Programmes and to demonstrate the benefits to patients and health delivery systems that have already been achieved.

The idea is to raise awareness about the EC's cooperation with Member States in the deployment of eHealth services on a large scale through programmes such as the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The campaign will be implemented by so2say communications (Berlin), whose media relations team for the European Commission's eHealth campaign can be contacted at ictforhealth@so2say.com.

eHealth, alongside renewable energies and sustainable manufacturing, for example, is one of the six Lead Markets defined by the European Commission in 2006, which offer high growth potential for research and innovation-rich goods and services.

At the beginning of 2009, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, announced that over the next two years, the European Commission would be spending approximately 163 million euro on eHealth research.

One example is the European Health-e-Child Network. Health-e-Child is an integrated platform for European paediatrics based on a grid-enabled network of leading clinical centres. It is geared towards establishing a comprehensive view of the child's health by vertically integrating biometric data, information and knowledge.

The central information platform for the eHealth campaign will be the news wire service HealthTech Wire, which will be used to produce and disseminate news on European eHealth issues.

"The information campaign will improve journalists' access to news about eHealth," says Corinne Wenner, Information & Communication Officer, ICT for Health, DG Information Society & Media, European Commission.

"But we are also inviting anybody with a personal or professional interest in eHealth to share their own experiences, concerns, expectations and activities. The European Commission is therefore backing a number of best-practice networks, such as ePractice.eu, to encourage feedback on and involvement in the many eHealth activities that take place in hospitals, points of care, universities and research institutions across the European Union."

"We want to keep journalists informed about eHealth activities in their countries and regions and how they benefit patients," says Armin Scheuer, managing director of so2say communications.

"We also want to provide information on research and business opportunities in this field. Easy, multi-lingual access to eHealth information via a central service will allow us to present this sometimes complex topic in the most effective way in order to help journalists inform their readers about the concrete benefits of eHealth."

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