epSOS attempts to offer seamless healthcare to European citizens. Key goals are to improve the quality and safety of healthcare for citizens when travelling to another European country. Moreover, it concentrates on developing a practical eHealth framework and ICT infrastructure that enables secure access to patient health information among different European healthcare systems. epSOS can make a significant contribution to patient safety by reducing the frequency of medical errors and by providing quick access to documentation. In emergency situations, this documentation  provides the medical personnel with life-saving information and reduces the (sometimes needless) repetition of diagnostic procedures.

The technical, legal and organizational concepts developed within the framework of the project are subject to an extensive practical testing phase over a period of one year. epSOS will test cross-border eHealth services in the following areas:
In a first phase:

• Patient Summary: access to important medical data for patient treatment
• Cross-border use of electronic prescriptions ("ePrescription" - or "eMedication" systems)

In a second phase (epSOS enlargement phase):

• Integration of the 112 emergency services
• Integration of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)
• Patient access to their data

For the first time, patients in Europe will have the opportunity to use cross-border eHealth services when seeking healthcare in participating epSOS pilot countries - whether as tourists, business travelers, commuters or exchange students.