Introduction

The European single market in health care is developing despite the existence of many different health care systems. With cross-border activities in health care increasing, patients tend to be treated in other Member States more often than in the past, especially since there are waiting lists in some countries. Moreover, doctors ask for more and varied telematic information from their colleagues than previously, and health care professionals, hospitals and laboratories use more and more information and communication technology (ICT) applications to communicate health data for treatment and other purposes. Many health care players (like sickness funds, hospitals, laboratories, etc.) are European health care actors and feel the need to communicate health data between Member States for treatment and other purposes. Consumers, on the other hand, use the Internet to search for medical information or to order medicinal products from pharmacies that are located in other countries. Many of these developments are related to e-health. E-health describes the application of information and communication technologies across the whole range of functions that affect the health care sector. According to the European Commission, e-health comprises the following four interrelated categories of applications: (a) clinical information systems; (b) telemedicine and home care, personalized health systems and services for remote patient monitoring, teleconsultation, telecare, telemedicine and teleradiology; (c) integrated regional/ national health information networks, distributed electronic health record systems and associated services such as e-prescriptions or e-referrals; and (d) secondary usage of non-clinical systems (such as specialized systems for researchers, or support systems such as billing systems).