About epSOS

European Patients Smart Open Services - epSOS, (previously known as S.O.S. - "Smart Open Services", an Open eHealth initiative for a large scale European pilot of patient summary and electronic prescription) is a Europe-wide project organized by 27 beneficiaries representing twelve EU-member states, including ministries of health, national competence centres and numerous companies. This makes it the  first European eHealth project clustering such a large number of countries in practical cooperation.

The overarching goal of epSOS is to develop a practical eHealth framework and an Information & Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure that will enable secure access to patient health information, particularly with respect to basic patient summaries and ePrescriptions between different European healthcare systems.

The project is co-financed by the European Commission within the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP). epSOS was launched on July 1, 2008 and will be in progress for 36 months.

To achieve this goal, the national entitities cooperating within epSOS test both services in pilot applications, which interconnect national solutions. The approach, which is based on advanced and distinct use cases and associated infrastructural components, aims to deliver both a methodological process and durable implementations: building blocks. These building blocks will form the basis for a longer term, pan-European approach to develop interoperable service solutions.

The project is structured into work packages (WPs) which analyze the current situation in the participating countries, explore the legal questions, develop technical specifications covering all basic components of secure use of personalised health data, and finally set-up the test environment where the findings can be validated in a close to real life situation.

Dissemination and communication activities will accompany the project throughout the entire period, supported by the CALLIOPE Thematic Network.