Experts from the European Union and the United States started an intensive cooperation in the field of health care, concretely eHealth. They met for the first time in history for a one day conference in Brussels on Thursday the 10th of May 2007. I was the only member of the European parliament who had the opportunity to participate at this conference.

The meaning of work with information, communication and modern communication technologies in health care grows up. It is undoubted that exchanging and sharing of information brings up a higher quality of health care and a better safety for patients. Better accessibility to health and disease information is an essential factor that involves lifestyle and health care in the whole population.

On both sides of Atlantic, both in the European Union and in the United States there exist concrete plans for the development of electronic health care. In the United States there is a special department for health information technologies at the ministry of health care. Both sides concentrate on same priorities: expansion and using of electronic health records, on - line health care services and interoperability, or exchange of information between the information systems.

In the first part of the conference, the European and the American sides introduced their conceptions of development of electronic health care. In the second part, the speakers were concentrating on the description of global opportunities and the challenges in the field of eHealth. In the afternoon we focused on the issue of data standards and portability of information between the information systems. An important issue is the enhancement of patient safety thanks to the use of information systems and sharing of information.

Interesting thoughts were heard in the part devoted to the certification of health information systems, as well as during the discussion about the continuity of health care that is provided in different health facilities (even in different countries). Thanks to the continuity of health care that will be enabled through the share and portability of information is the health care provided in higher quality.

The participants of the conference reviewed the work in each working group in the final plenary sitting. They agreed on their common interest to cooperate in the field of developing eHealth. The mutual cooperation between the countries of the European Union and the United States creates a unique opportunity while developing the health care services, and not just only in the field of electronic health care.