The European leaders in deployment of telehealth as they have succeeded in integrating telehealth into standard patient treatments, are Denmark, the UK and some regions of Italy and Spain. Telehealth is healthcare empowered by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Such healthcare supports independent living of individuals and contributes to more efficient health and social care services delivery, according to the Commission.

The latest Joint Research Centre (JRC) research on personal health and care services, carried out in co-operation with the European Commission’s Information Society and Media Directorate-General, shows that Denmark, the UK and some regions of Italy and Spain are European leaders in deployment of telehealth, healthcare empowered by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In addition to these results, last 8 of May, the Commission published a report stating that benefit from eHealth if agreement is reached on how to use health data.

The role of integrated governance models, the availability of funding mechanisms for mainstreaming, the alignment of incentives across tiers of care are some of the best practice examples identified through this research which focuses on personal health and care services. The report findings show Denmark as an example where good co-operation between government and other key stakeholders such as health care professionals has speeded up the integration of personal health systems such as remote patient monitoring systems into healthcare delivery. Telehealth is being also mainstreamed in England and Scotland while in Italy and Spain sharp differences emerge between regions in the application of telehealth.

The findings are part of the multi-annual Strategic Intelligence Monitor on Personal Health Systems (SIMPHS) research project which focuses more particularly on telehealth and telecare including remote monitoring and treatment of patients. The results showed that alongside technology implementation, the main issue for telehealth uptake is re-organisation of care which could be enhanced with greater involvement of governments as market forces alone cannot achieve the integration of telehealth solutions into care delivery. The SIMPHS study also shows that additional barriers to deployment are interoperability and standardisation of health data across regions and healthcare systems.