There is an increased interest in the rapid development of e-Health and the resulting myriad of possibilities for applications to improve healthcare worldwide. The term comes from the "dot com revolution" and is similar to e-commerce, e-business etc. E-Health encompasses a radical rethinking of the ways in which health care can be managed, structured and monitored. Telemedicine and home care systems for instance provide alternative options to traditional health care service. It has also changed the relationships between patients and professionals allowing for borderless communication.
The need for a pan-European eHealth strategy is essential for reducing the duplication of expensive healthcare facilities, for providing proper monitoring and regulation of increased migration of European workers and for improving efficiency when patients cross national borders to seek treatment in another EU member state.