The health policy guidance and practice of introducing technologies in health system in Europe

Modern technology has so far been adopted into the various European health systems at different stages. This has lead to a number of recommendations from the EU at a national and at an EU level [1]. In Germany, a “law on safe communication and applications in healthcare” (so called eHealth-law) has been passed by the German government in December 2015 [2]. It aims to accelerate the introduction of eHealth in Germany and includes mandatory milestones. The key aspects are an emergency health record, which must be implemented by 2018, an electronic medication plan, an electronic exchange of medical data and an EHR, which has to be implemented by the end of 2018. However, it remains arguable if such a law will be enough to facilitate the further development of eHealth.