ECLAC Will Present Handbook on
Electronic Health in Spain

Photo: Universidad de Navarra, Flickr

"Digital pathology", "teleradiology" and "electronic medical records" are some of the concepts which can be found in the Handbook on electronic health for directors of health services and systems, which will be presented at the XV National Congress on Spanish Health Informatics to be held from 20 to 22 March in Madrid.

The event is organized by the Spanish Society of Health Informatics (SEIS), an organization which has been working jointly with ECLAC for three years to disseminate and exchange knowledge and experiences in this area.

Both organizations called on experts in Europe and Latin America to compile this handbook which seeks to facilitate decision makers' actions aiming to incorporate information and communication technologies (ICTs) into public health strategies and helping the process of training specialists.

The document will be published after almost one year of work by a multidisciplinary team of 38 specialists. It will be presented by the coordinators, ECLAC expert Andrés Fernández and the representative of SEIS, Javier Carnicero, who will be accompanied by Lincoln Moura, President-elect of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and of Clemens Auer, Coordinator of the initiative on eHealth governance in Europe.

The publication deals with nearly all the areas in which ICTs can be applied. In addition, it explains concepts, outlines the benefits and identifies the requirements.

Over the past three years, ECLAC has promoted dialogue and cooperation between Latin America and Europe on political, social and technological aspects of incorporating ICTs into the area of health. This handbook was compiled as part of work on the electronic health component of the ECLAC @LIS2 programme.

The Organization has consolidated a regional working group to increase South-South cooperation in this area, and it has recently been recognized by the Pan American Health Organization as an advisory group on its Communication and Knowledge Management area.

This regional commission of the United Nations has also systematized information on regional development in formulating eHealth policies and strategies, and it has worked on identifying, defining and prioritizing social, demographic and epidemiological indicators to follow up the formulation of ICT policies and strategies on health aimed at reducing inequalities.