Across the world, health services and systems are changing to reflect the need for improvements in the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of care. E Health has already demonstrated its value and contribution to enabling these changes. As countries adopt e Health, they will need to integrate a patchwork of legacy systems with medical devices and information systems. At the same time, they will need to ensure there is a foundation on which stakeholders can innovate, since e Health can only meet its potential for achieving seamless, personalized and integrated care if based on open, global common and interoperable standards.

Much has already been done towards the development of e health standards and frameworks for interoperability, yet full implementation has not been achieved. Moving forward, understanding the work still required and the role of all stakeholders will contribute to better use of resources and more focused work to fill the gaps. In addition, a clear e-health policy and strategic framework is needed to guide the development of an enabling and sustainable environment.

Towards that end, ITU and WHO are inviting organizations working on health standards and other stakeholders to a workshop, in Geneva, 26-27 April 2012, to take stock of efforts to date, discuss barriers to adoption, and contribute to an ITU-WHO developed roadmap to guide future action.

A background document and presentations will guide the discussions during the event.

All relevant stakeholders, inter alia:

• Organizations developing standards applicable to e Health, such as ITU, WHO, ISO, CEN, Continua Health Alliance, HL7, RSNA (DICOM), IEEE, IHTSDO, IHE
• Academic institutions, research centres and laboratories
• Funding agencies (e.g. USAID, CIDA, World Bank)
• Private companies, industry associations, individual entrepreneurs
• OECD and Regional Economic Organizations (EC, APEC, UN ECA, ECE, ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA, etc)
• Healthcare associations
• National governments and regional bodies