As member states prepare to ramp up the building renovation rate, there is an unprecedented opportunity to hardwire health aspects into the built environment. The brand-new edition of the Healthy Buildings Barometer maps why and how health, energy and climate …
The human-animal bond between pets and their owners is a mutually reinforcing relationship that promotes the health and wellbeing of animals and people.
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is often described as the invisible killer, mostly because patients have few or no symptoms until it is too late. On the practical level, this means that the disease, although devastating for both the individual and …
An EU strategy boosting walking and cycling would have been key to clean up the air in our cities, achieve the EU’s climate goals and prevent disease, argues Anne Stauffer.
European citizens have been exemplary in their fight against COVID 19. They have bravely overcome an acute sanitary threat and paid the high economic, social and psychological price of the lockdown, write a group of European lawmakers.
FleishmanHillard is delighted to announce that Mr Claudio Murri and Dr Lukas Pfister have joined the firm as senior advisers to our technology and healthcare practices. Given the accelerating EU agendas in both of these sectors, increasing clients demands and opportunities for growth, …
The Commission’s recent musings on the social dimension of Europe touches on common drug pricing among member states. But it misses out on solutions for faster access to medicine, Fred Roeder.
Given that the current European Commission has not prioritised healthcare, it looks as though it is up to the European Parliament to push the agenda, writes Denis Horgan.
We are halfway through this European Parliament’s mandate and, as ever, many laws have been voted, with many more to come. But will they be effectively introduced at the national level in the area of health? Denis Horgan asks.
Mass migration causes serious challenges, but fears that it will overwhelm European health systems are unfounded: we can and must adapt now, writes Helmut Brand.
A resolution for the rights of women domestic workers and carers in the EU is due to be voted on 28 April at the European Parliament. This could be a historical step towards equal rights for this category of workers.
The European Union recognises that the foundation for a healthy society is healthy people. But it still lags behind in ensuring that its 15 million people with intellectual disabilities can have access to healthcare systems that are prepared in dealing with their situation, writes Meghan Hussey.
European Union member states fell short of their collective aid commitments by a shocking €39.5 billion last year, writes Tamira Gunzburg.
Viral hepatitis belongs to the group of the top 10 infectious disease killers in Europe with 125,000 patients who die each year. Despite its considerable impact, it receives too little attention by health policymakers although small efforts could already yield major improvements, says MEP Marina Yannakoudakis.
Draft EU legislation seeks to bring services under the European standardisation system, with a view to improving their free movement in the single market. Yet in the case of healthcare, such standardisation threatens patient safety, says Dr Konstanty Radziwill.
Gary Finnegan analyses a pessimistic report by the Economist Intelligence Unit on the future of health care in Europe.
"Today health is people's main concern, but health systems must face up to four challenges: pragmatism, transversability, accountability and sustainability. The future of our health depends on this," writes Orlando Monteiro da Silva, president-elect of the World Dental Federation, in an exclusive op-ed for EURACTIV.
European cancer patients continue to suffer from a lack of access to quality information and are often lured by untrustworthy sources such as counterfeit online pharmacies. The EU must urgently establish a coherent and comprehensive strategy to allow patients to make informed choices, writes Jan Geissler, director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), in an April blog post.
Numerous pilot projects have confirmed that tele-medicine brings benefits for healthcare providers, insurers and patients – particularly reduced costs – and although risks and obstacles remain, the environment for tele-medicine is set to improve in the coming years, writes Dr. Uwe Perlitz from Deutsche Bank Research in a March paper.
Information and communication technology (ICT) is a vital component for the delivery of modern health care and ICT tools can play a key role in making patient care more efficient and streamlined, according to a March report by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
The passage of President Obama's healthcare reforms in the US Congress should be good news for America's transatlantic partners, because it shows a convergence between the US and European social systems and may allow Obama to focus more on foreign policy, argues Ian O. Lesser, senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, in a March publication.
"Patient involvement in health-related EU projects is fundamental to patient-centred, equitable healthcare throughout the EU. 'Meaningful patient involvement' means putting the patient at the centre of healthcare policy so that their specific knowledge and experience can feed into the decision-making process," writes Nicola Bedlington, director of the European Patients' Forum, in an exclusive commentary for EURACTIV.
"Great benefits can be made by opening health sectors to trade and investment integration, but very few countries have undertaken such reforms," write Lucy Davis and Fredrik Erixon in a policy brief for the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE).
Being particularly vulnerable, the elderly are "often ignored and denied their full human rights," according to the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg, writing on the council's website on 28 April 2008.
