Launch of the European X-eHealth project with the participation of the TIC Salut Social Foundation

On 2 September, the X-eHealth project was launched with a virtual kick-off meeting.  This strategic project for the European Union is coordinated by Serviços Partilhados do Ministério da Saúde de Portugal (SPMS) and involves the TIC Salut Social Foundation together with 35 partners from other EU countries.

The overall objective of the X-eHealth project is to provide the European Union with integrated health processes which provide better access to the medical history of European citizens from any Member State, regardless of where the care is being carried out. The health professional of the authorized centre needs to be able to access the patient’s data using the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format (EEHRxF).

Kick-off meetings of a European project are usually held in person in the project’s coordinating country, but due to the current pandemic situation and to ensure the safety of the participants, it was finally held virtually. This allowed all the project partners to take part, leading to a total of more than eighty connected users.

The meeting, organized and led by the SPMS coordinator, began by setting the objectives and proposing the strategic approach needed to achieve them. Two examples of cross-border use cases were then presented. First the clinical summary of a Czech patient on a visit to Portugal, and then a case involving ePrescription/eDispensing for Portuguese citizens on a trip to Finland.

During the meeting, the official website www.x-ehealth.eu was also presented, which collects information about the X-eHealth project, the objectives and the list of the resulting deliverables that will be published as they are completed.

Finally, the necessary working methodologies were shared among participants so they could work together, and the schedule was established for the next meetings of the different working groups.