[Actual state and perspectives of e-health in Austria and international--an overview].

eHealth will influence the development of the Austrian health and social care significantly. The main part will be the implementation of an electronic health record. There are many hospital and outpatient information systems already implemented and the challenge is to enable a patient-centered communication of all health care providers by defining technical standards and the organizational and legal framework. Within this framework privacy and security have to be guaranteed at the highest possible level. Also, companies offering information systems have to improve the usability of their systems. One very important application is the filtering of relevant information according to a user profile and the optimal presentation in tables and graphs. The stepwise modular implementation and the use of international standards can be considered as a very positive approach to eHealth in Austria.