New HIE to span 12 European countries

Here at FierceHealthIT, we usually report on projects taking place in the United States, but this one was so large, we couldn't resist giving you an update. With support from the European Commission, a three-year health data sharing project involving a group of 12 European countries is taking place that hopes to accomplish a level of large-scale health sharing that has still eluded us in the U.S. The countries have launched the European Patient Smart Open Services (epSOS) project, which works to create interoperability between national e-health systems in the participating countries.

Every country involved already has its own system of storing healthcare information, and the systems typically can't share information. Now, however, the countries are hoping to build a system akin to the planned National Health Information Network underway in the U.S. Patent summaries and e-prescription services are already in place in some countries, but even those aren't universally available or shareable.

To learn more about the project:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece [1]
- review the epSOS site [2]

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NHIN, RHIOs and all that [4]