During its January plenary session, on 14 January, the European Parliament voted in favour of a resolution welcoming the European Commission´s eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020. The EC published the Action Plan on 6 December 2012 as part of continuing effort to promote high-quality efficient patient-oriented health system using effectively the possibilities brought by the modern information and communication technologies. Its general aims include the improvement of chronic disease management and prevention, increase of sustainability and efficiency of the healthcare system, fostering of cross-border healthcare and improvement of legal and market conditions for eHealth products and services. To achieve the general goals, the Action Plan sets four general objectives:
1) wider interoperability of eHealth services – all Member States use some sort of eHealth services, but they are not able to “communicate together”
2) support for innovation, research and development in eHealth in order to achieve wider availability of user-friendly tools – of the Member States´ various eHealth systems only a small number provides services for the end-user, the patient
3) support wider employment of eHealth services
4) promotion of dialogue and international cooperation on global level.