Sensitizing the society for eHealth was and is one of the core tasks of our network. Since 2009, we work on the realization of this aim exactly this core task in projects. In addition to the initial “eHealth for regions” project, three other projects were developed and successfully launched together with the network partners and their expertise. A total of up to 8.9 million euros out of project funds have been generated.
The network has its origin in the transnational project with the same name “eHealth for Regions”. The project ran from June 2004 until May 2007 and was part-financed by the European Union within the frame of the Baltic Sea Region Interreg III B programme. On the basis of the results and the built network of persons and organisations, the Political Strategic Board of the project was proposed to continue the work after the end of the funding period. The legal basis of the network is a network agreement signed by the Political Strategic Board in May 2007 which defines the network structure and tasks.
In 2007 the participants of the Interreg-Project „eHealth for Regions“ decided to stay together in a network to secure project results and to communicate the opportunities of eHealth applications for the Health Care Systems in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). They signed a network agreement and founded the eHealth for Regions Network. The first transnational network dealing with eHealth in the Northern part of Europe. On the side you find the logo of the founding time.
Since 2008 the Management Secretariat is hosted at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences.
From 2008 until today many projects have run in the Baltic Sea Region, which is represented in the eHealth for Regions Network. The network members represent relevant actors in the Health Care System. They believe in the opportunities of eHealth services to secure quality and efficiency in modern Health Care Systems and to overcome the tremendous challenges (see below). Therefore the network has established regular meetings in present and virtually to exchange experiences and knowledge and to share those between the network partners. The network can be seen as an incubator of innovative ideas in the field of eHealth. This role was confirmed by the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS). They awarded the network as an Associated Expert Group within the NDPHS in 2013.
Today the Baltic Sea Region is the leading region regarding eHealth services in Europe. The Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems for example in Estonia, Sweden or Denmark are benchmarks for all other countries in Europe. In addition, telemedicine services are widespread in the Scandinavian countries. It is our vision to develop all these services further for the benefit of the citizens and patients. It is our task to underline the leading role of our regions in developing new ideas in the field of eHealth services.