e-Health Spain

After the accumulated experience it is time for a new Action Plan, facing challenges as: crises; ageing population; sustainability and efficiency in the public sector; and economic and  social inclusion. e-Health has received a great impulse in the European Union through the Actions Plans e-Europe 2002 and 2005, i-2010 and the 2004 Action Plan for a European e-Health Area. The most relevant financial instruments, such as the Structural Funds, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme and the 7th Framework Programme, are making important contributions to e-Health projects and infrastructures in the 2007-2013 period. A series of yearly Ministerial Conferences, started in 2003 in Brussels, have also highly contributed to this impulse. In 2006 Spain had the great honour of hosting the Conference in Malaga and 2010 will be a new opportunity of hosting it again in Barcelona, in March, under Spanish Presidency. In the development of programmes and conferences there is an accumulated knowledge and experience to give a new impulse to a renewed Action Plan. In particular, facing new European challenges as: economic crises; ageing population; sustainability and efficiency in the public sector; and economic and social inclusion.