European Patients Smart Open Services (epSOS)
Research Areas
At a Glance
- Status: Completed Consortium
- Year Launched: 2008
- Initiating Organization: European Commission Competitiveness and Innovation Programme
- Initiator Type: Government
- No disease focus

Abstract
European Patients Smart Open Services (epSOS) aims to design, build, and evaluate a service infrastructure that demonstrates cross-border interoperability between electronic health record systems in Europe.
Mission
epSOS aims to offer seamless healthcare to European citizens. Key goals are to improve the quality and safety of healthcare for citizens when travelling to another European country. Moreover, it concentrates on developing a practical eHealth framework and ICT infrastructure that enables secure access to patient health information among different European healthcare systems. epSOS can make a significant contribution to patient safety by reducing the frequency of medical errors and by providing quick access to documentation as well as by increasing accessibility of ones prescribed medicine also abroad. In emergency situations, this documentation provides the medical personnel with life-saving information and reduces the (sometimes needless) repetition of diagnostic procedures.
The technical, legal, and organizational concepts developed within the framework of the project are subject to an extensive practical testing phase lasted until the end of the project.
Consortium History
July 1, 2008: Project start date
June 2014: Project end date
Structure & Governance
Work on the strategic level is primarily carried out by the Project Steering Board (PSB) with the support of the epSOS General Assembly (EGA). On the operational level the participating nations (PN) and national epSOS pilot coordinator (NEPC) contribute to the epSOS project in the particular Work Packages (WPs) and Key Tasks (KTs).
The Project Management Team coordinates working processes and represents the interface between strategic and operational level. After the project internal quality review process, the project coordinator officially submits the produced deliverables to the European Commission.
Project Management consists of the following bodies and positions:
Financing
The project cost is €36.5 million, co-funded by the European Commission Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) within the ICT Policy Support Programme.
Patient Engagement
Corporate Social Responsibility
The epSOS project is about people’s cross-border healthcare and safety as well as about trust. The project members emphasize this fact by setting up a high level of ethics standards as part of project culture. These standards are based on integrity, respect, consent, and transparency of information and behavior according to national and European legal regulations. These efforts are aimed at generating and maintaining confidence among all stakeholders and encouraging project participants to act in a fair and responsible way.
Responsibility and Sustainability
Many of project members represent the national health authorities of different European countries. They are not only responsible for their own national health system, but also for making their knowledge available within the European context. It is their common goal to identify and define sustainable know-how for Europe in this field, thus facilitating a closer cooperation between nations through the sharing of experiences and information.
Links/Social Media Feed
Homepage |
http://www.epsos.eu/home.html |
Points of Contact
Project Coordinator
Fredrik Lindén
SALAR - Swedish Association of Local
Authorities and Regions
email: emailinfo@epsos.eu
Sponsors & Partners
Administração Central do Sistema de Saúde, I.P. (PTNA) |
NARODOWY FUNDUSZ ZDROWIA (NFZ) |
Agence eSanté G.I.E. (LUNA) |
National Health Information Centre (NHIC) |
AGENCIA VALENCIANA DE SALUD (AVS) |
National IT Institute for Healthcare in the Netherlands (NICTIZ) |
Aristotelean University of Thessaloniki |
Pharmaxis |
ASIP Santé (Agence des systèmes d'information partagés de santé) |
Region of Lombardy |
Catalan Agency for Health Information, Assessment and Quality (AIAQS) |
Regional Healthcare Service of Andalucia |
Danish National Board of e-Health |
Ministry for Health (MTNA) |
Department of Health |
Regional Healthcare Service of Castilla La Mancha (SESCAM) |
Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport |
SERVEI DE SALUT DE LES ILLES BALEARS (BAL) |
Eesti e-Tervise Sihtasutus (EESTI) |
Serviços Partilhados do Ministério da Saúde, E.P.E. (SPMS) |
Egeszsegugyi Strategiai Kutatointezet (ESKI) |
Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs |
Empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations– und Technologieforschung mbH (EMPIRICA) |
SRDC YZILIM ARASTIRMA VE GELISTIRME VE DANISMANLIKTICARET LIMITED SIRKETI (SRDC) |
Federal Office of Public Health (CHNA) |
Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) |
Fraunhofergesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung (Fraunhofer ISST) |
Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs |
French Ministry of Health |
Terveyden Ja Hyvinvoinnin Laitos (THL) |
Fundació TicSalut Catalonia |
Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Saglik Bakanligi (TRNA) |
Gematik Gesellschaft für Telematikanwendungen der Gesundheitskarte mbH |
Austrian Federal Ministry of Health |
German Federal Ministry of Health |
ELGA |
Helsedirektoratet (NONA) |
Plate-forme eHealth (BEPLAT) |
INSTITUT ZA VAROVANJE ZDRAVJA REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE (NIPHRS) |
RECIP-E VZW |
INSTYTUT LOGISTYKI I MAGAZYNOWANIA (ILIM) |
Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise-Europe AISBL (IHE) |
LES HOPITAUX UNIVERSITAIRES DE GENEVE (HUG) |
Hrvatski Zavod Za Zdravstveno Osiguranje (HRNA) |
Lombardia Informatica (LISPA) |
Internet Access to Patient Electronic Health Record (IZIP) |
Ministeriet for sundhed og forebyggelse |
Danish National Board of e-Health |
3M |
Agfa HealthCare |
Alert Life Sciences Computing |
Apollo Information Technologies |
CareCom |
Cisco |
Conet AG |
dbMotion |
Dedalus Healthcare Systems Group |
Engineering S.p.A. |
GE Healthcare |
Gnomon Informatics SA |
IBM |
Indra |
Insiel S.p.A. |
Intel Corporation |
iUZ |
Mawell |
Microsoft |
NANTHEALTH / Boston Life Labs |
Netsmart |
Oracle |
Posam |
RISE |
Steria |
Tiani-Spirit |
TrebleM |
T-Systems |
UBM Medica |
X-tention |