E-health development policies in new member states in Central Europe.

The paper brings insights on the process of e-health development in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which joined European Union in 2004 years. The main part of the activities resulting in this review were carried out within the eHealth European Research Area (eHealth ERA) project established under the EU 6. Framework Programme. The research team involved in the project activities in the Centre of Innovation, Technology Transfer and University Development, Jagiellonian University focused the inquiries on the six countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia. The tool for data collection elaborated by the STAKES, Finland was applied. The main areas covered within the analysis included: health system characteristics, e-health policies definition process and deployment, specific activities in e-health subdomain as well as research and development programmes held in European countries. It seems that general background and intensive process of system and economy transformation was key factor influencing greatly the perception and status of the e-health domain in these countries. The opportunities related to the inclusion in the European Union was another essential factor bringing additional important impact on the e-health formation. All these countries started painful reform in early 90s after the fall of the communist governments. The health care system in general was not the prime benefactors of these changes.