Proposal for a European Public Health Research Infrastructure for Sharing of health and Medical administrative data (PHRIMA).

In Europe, health and medical administrative data is increasingly accumulating on a national level. Looking further than re-use of this data on a national level, sharing health and medical administrative data would enable large-scale analyses and European-level public health projects. There is currently no research infrastructure for this type of sharing.

Empowering patients through eHealth: a case report of a pan-European project.

Background: This paper crystallises the experience developed by the pan-European PALANTE Consortium in dealing with the generation of relevant evidence from heterogeneous eHealth services for patient empowerment in nine European Regions. The European Commission (EC) recently funded a number of pan-European eHealth projects aimed at empowering European patients/citizens thus transforming the traditional patient/citizen role in the management of their health (e.g.

Patient Empowerment and its neighbours: clarifying the boundaries and their mutual relationships.

Patients are increasingly encouraged to become active players in self-care and shared decision-making. Such attention has led to an explosion of terms - empowerment, engagement, enablement, participation, involvement, activation - each having multiple and overlapping meanings. The resulting ambiguity inhibits an effective use of existing evidence.