New EU Health Portal launched

The Commission has launched a new Health-EU Portal to answer to the needs of an estimated third of the EU population searching for information on different health issues.

17.05.2006 | Sascha Gabizon

According to the Commission, every third European adult is surfing the internet trying to find information on health. To help these people to find their way around, the Commission has launched, in the context of the eHealth 2006 conference , a new portal on health. The Health-EU Portal aims to be a gateway and 'one-stop-shop' to simple and reliable information on 6 thematic health areas, divided in 47 health topics, touching upon issues from health insurance and infectious diseases to bioterrorism.

The site aims to provide citizens, patients, healthcare professionals and scientists with information on both health topics and related policies as well as on the latest developments in research .

The Health-EU Portal supplies links to all member states' health-related policies and other health issues, to a large number of specialist websites and to sites of NGOs and international organisations.

This 600 000 euro project is an initiative of the EU Public Health Programme 2003-2008 and corresponds also to the aspirations on the e-Europe Action Plan as the portal aims to provide citizens with simple, clear and scientifically sound information on-line.