ACTIVITIES :: ICT for Health :: Research :: Projects
eHealth projects in FP6
A total of 55 eHealth research projects received EU funding under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), which ran from 2002 to 2006. Four calls for proposals (in response to which research teams bid for funding support for work in priority fields defined by the Commission) were published during that period, and the total budget allocated to projects selected was more than €185 million. The projects fall into three major categories: personal health systems, healthcare decision support systems and biomedical informatics.
- Personal health systems
- Decision support systems
- Biomedical informatics
- Personal health systems
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Research in this field seeks to develop smart biosensor technologies which can be worn (directly or in clothing) or implanted in patients to provide constant monitoring of particular health conditions. Tools of this nature provide patients with a better quality of life, by allowing them to stay at home rather than be hospitalised. They also enable doctors to identify health problems at an earlier stage thereby enabling simpler treatment to be undertaken.
Projects:
- Decision support systems
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Patient-specific data, together with information on treatment possibilities, drugs and medical technologies plays an ever-increasing role in medical professionals’ decision-making. Research in this field aimed at harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to gather, process and analyse health-related information, in particular to assess and manage risks to patient safety better.
Projects:
- Biomedical informatics
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Research in this field seeks to make better use of the information available to health professionals to develop medical knowledge and so better prevent disease and improve treatment possibilities. In particular, researchers are working on methods to process information on a range of levels (molecular, cellular, tissue, organ and person) to be able to build a fuller picture of healthcare concerns. For example, when a doctor suspects a patient may have a specific disease they can do blood tests or scans, and examinations of cells taken from the patient, but these may be inconclusive. Using biomedical informatics, it is possible to consider the test results alongside observations of the patient, and where relevant past medical history (should they have suffered from particular illnesses or undergone treatment in earlier years). Whereas doctors make these considerations in their head, based on training and their experience, using computer tools enables a more systematic evaluation of symptoms and possible diagnoses. Moreover, information on the individual patient can be compared with data relating to other patients across the country or beyond with similar problems, thereby helping to refine the diagnosis more rapidly. This can avoid the need for further complex tests, saving time and money, and enable treatment of the patient’s condition to start more quickly.
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| Last update by the Editor (ehealth(AT)cec.eu.int): 29/03/12 |