Politische Verantwortung bei der Entwicklung von Gesundheitstelematik und -informationssystemen

Health care belongs to the infrastructure and service sectors, which are influenced and restructured by the development and implementation of information and communication technologies.However, health care itself gives momentum to economic and social development, which leads to the information and knowledge society.This interaction results in increased efficiency, improvements of quality, and cost savings.To achieve these goals, a suitable general framework must be created.Important key applications need to be developed. In this regard, four important initiatives are currently underway. 1.At the European level, the action plan “eEurope 2002 – An Information Society for All” with its four action lines on the subject of “Health Online” was launched in Feira in 1999, followed by the action plan “eEurope 2005” in Sevilla in June 2002 . 2. In Germany, the Federal Government's program “Innovation and Workplaces in the Information Society of the 21st Century.” On 6 March 2002 the Government approved a progress report entitled “Information Society Germany”. 3.The decisions of the health ministers' conference in June 2001 and June 2002 to ask the Federal-State Working Group on Telematics to discuss and to compile comprehensive reports on telematics. 4.The joint declaration of the Federal Ministry of Health and the German Health Care Associations of 3 May 2002 to establish a high-level Steering Group on Telematics and to implement the electronic health card within a new telematic infrastructure.