Glossary

Model for ASsessment of Telemedicine. A multidisciplinary assessment framework. Whilst it is true that it is designed for telemedicine-related technologies, they can also be adapted to various digital health service providers. […]
Digital literacy refers to the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to successfully use digital solutions, effectively understand and utilise data outputs from such solutions as well as actively participate in the digital information society. […]
The Knowledge Tree is the visualisation of the DHE capacity building framework comprising 8 key components and 20 building blocks. Concrete capacity building materials (videos, articles, guidelines, reports, recommendations, etc) are tagged to each […]
Joint Action supporting the eHealth Network. A Health Programme-funded project. The eHealth Action aims to reflect digital health importance as a complementary resource for public health and services. […]
DHE WP3 developed a capacity building framework drawing on other existing frameworks which target all kinds of stakeholders who are interested in scaling-up person-centred digital solutions for integrated care. As part of this framework, […]
To achieve the European Artificial intelligence (AI) strategy’s aim to optimise development and deployment of AI, the European Commission introduced AI Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs) in the Digital Europe programme. […]
The EU programme that provides tailor-made technical expertise to EU Member States to design and implement reforms. The support is demand driven and does not require co-financing from Member States. It is an important […]
The post-market surveillance of medical products contains „all activities carried out by the manufacturers in cooperation with other economic operators to institute and keep up to date a systematic procedure to proactively collect and […]
Europe’s recovery plan after the pandemic. Its €806.9 billion budget adds up to the long-term budget (MFF). […]
A long-term, seven-year, framework regulating the annual EU budget. The financial framework sets the maximum amount of spendings in the EU budget each year for broad policy areas (“headings”) and fixes an overall annual […]
A concept or plan on EU or national level to encourage or promote a specific desirable behaviour or action, in this case a more active engagement of actors regarding healthcare interoperability. […]
Europe’s nineth Research and Innovation Framework Programme for the period 2021-2027. […]
A full interoperability ecosystem provides an information infrastructure using technical standards, policies and protocols facilitating continuous and secure collection, discovery, exchange and utilisation of health information. […]
Europe’s new funding instrument replacing the Health Programme brought to life as a response to the COVID-19 health crisis although the programme will go beyond crisis management and will target reinforcing health systems’ resilience. […]
IMI consortium, launched to address the current challenges in generating insights and evidence from real-world clinical data at scale, to support patients, clinicians, payers, regulators, governments, and the industry in understanding wellbeing, disease, treatments, […]
It addresses the third priority of DTHC and outlines what elements are needed, in particular at the organisational level, to improve patients’ empowerment and therefore better collaboration with healthcare providers and health systems while […]
A new EU funding programme for the period 2021-2027 focused on bringing digital technology to businesses, citizens and public administrations. […]
An overview of open relevant calls to support the large-scale deployment of person-centred digital solutions. The database includes Horizon Europe, EU4Health and the Digital Europe Programme. The database is available on the DHE website. […]
The term citizen agency is used meaning to inform, involve and enable citizens and communities to interact and influence authorities. […]
It constitute a practical analytical framework that can be used by decision-makers, healthcare personnel, and patients to support the implementation of good practices, and to improve, monitor, and evaluate the quality of chronic disease […]
Allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services. It allows them to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in […]
An independent European body, which contributes to the consistent application of data protection rules throughout the European Union, and promotes cooperation between the EU’s data protection authorities. […]
Plan by the European Commission. A board made up of representatives from each EU member state would be useful to elevate the importance of data-driven innovation in EU policy circles and establish consistent data […]
Ensures that the organisation processes the personal data of its staff, customers, providers or any other individuals (also referred to as data subjects) in compliance with the applicable data protection rules. […]
Monitors and supervises, through investigative and corrective powers, the application of the data protection law. It provides expert advice on data protection issues and handle complaints that may have breached the law. […]
Honour the people who volunteer time to participate by sharing their data for good Protect privacy and confidentiality Advance science by better understanding diseases Generate new insights that expand knowledge to develop new treatments […]
Uses of health and clinical data for a different purpose than it was originally collected for, e.g., for research purposes. […]
The exercise of decision-making and authority for data-related matters. The organizational bodies, rules, decision rights, and accountabilities of people and information systems as they perform information-related processes. Data Governance determines how an organization makes […]
Term used in the Data Governance Act. Data that is made available without reward for purely non-commercial usage that benefits communities or society at large, such as the use of mobility data to improve […]
A record that can be interpreted by auditors to establish that an activity has taken place. Often, a chronological record of system activities to enable the reconstruction and examination of the sequence of events […]
“European Reference Networks (ERNs) are virtual networks involving healthcare providers across Europe. They aim to facilitate discussion on complex or rare diseases and conditions that require highly specialised treatment, and concentrated knowledge and resources.” […]
Is defined as digital health and care referring to tools and services that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management of health-related issues and to monitor and […]
Aims at supporting European Reference Networks in improving the diagnosis and treatment of rare or low prevalence complex diseases across national borders of Member States in Europe. The system enables healthcare professionals to upload […]
The electronic health record exchange format will help citizens to quickly access and share their health data with healthcare professionals. For example, when consulting a specialist or receiving emergency treatment in another EU country. […]
A method of contact tracing relying on tracking systems, most often based on mobile devices, to determine contact between an infected patient and a user. […]
Initiative to identify ways to optimise the efficiency of cancer care by focusing on improving outcomes for patients and identifying inefficient practices, using technology to demonstrate how efficient care happens. […]
The concept behind the collaboration platforms is adopted from the 3C collaboration model developed by Borghoff and Schlichter that describes “Cooperation, Communication and Coordination as the main challenges for the members in a collaborative […]
Trust services are a key to increase citizens confidence in the online world. The five main trust services which are included in the eIDAS Regulation, are “Electronic signatures, Electronic seals, Electronic time stamps, Electronic […]
Michael Porter (1995) introduced the notion of a value chain in his book “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance”. The concept of value added, in the form of the value chain, can be used to develop an […]
Value usually ranging from 0 (death) to 1 (perfect health) that expresses the preference that individuals or society in general have for a specific health state.[70] [70] https://www.nice.org.uk/Glossary?letter=U […]
A textual and graphical depiction of the actors and operations that address information exchange in the context of a set of specific tasks for a workflow performed by different systems or devices. (ISO TR […]
Reference sites are inspirational ecosystems, delivering creative and workable solutions that improve the lives and health of older people and the whole community.[68] [68] Ec.europe.eu (2020). Reference sites [online]. European commission. https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/reference-sites_en […]
Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient reported experience measures (PREMs) are instruments for evaluating outcomes and experiences of health care from the patient’s perspective.[64] While PROMs quantify healthcare outcomes. PREMs assess patients’ needs […]
Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient reported experience measures (PREMs) are instruments for evaluating outcomes and experiences of health care from the patient’s perspective.[62] While PROMs quantify healthcare outcomes. PREMs assess patients’ needs […]
“A technical specification means a document that prescribes technical requirements to be fulfilled by a product, process, service or system” (Regulation of European Standardisation). […]
Technical Interoperability is usually associated with hardware/software components, systems and platforms that enable machine-to-machine communication to take place. This kind of interoperability is often centred on (communication) protocols and the infrastructure needed for those […]
A substructure of standards development organisations in charge of developing standards as prioritised in the work programme of the ESO or NSB (Source: CEN).  […]
The term standards developing organization (SDO) generally refers to the industry- or sector-based standards organizations that develop and publish industry specific standards (Source: Wikipedia).  […]
Semantic interoperability refers to the ability of computer systems to transmit data with unambiguous shared meaning. Semantic interoperability is a requirement to enable machine computable logic inferencing knowledge discovery and data federation between information […]
Documents in a digital form, other than scientific publications, which are collected or produced in the course of scientific research activities and are used as evidence in the research process, or are commonly accepted […]
Research infrastructures (RIs) are facilities, resources and services used by the scientific community to conduct research and foster innovation. They include: major scientific equipment, resources such as collections, archives or scientific data, e-infrastructures such as data and computing […]
Real world evidence is the clinical evidence regarding the usage and potential benefits or risks of a medical product derived from analysis of RWD. RWE can be generated by different study designs or analyses, […]
Real world data is big data, referring specifically to any type of data not collected in a randomised clinical trial. This data can complement randomised clinical trial data to fill the knowledge gap between […]
Measure of the life expectancy of an individual adjusted by its quality of life. A QALY is one year spent in perfect health.[66] [66] https://www.nice.org.uk/glossary?letter=q […]
Organisational interoperability means “[to] [c]oordinate processes in which different organisations achieve a previously agreed and mutual beneficial goal” (Re eHEIF).  […]
National organisations composed of technical committees to develop standards that are considered necessary by market actors and/or to support the implementation of European legislation (Source: CEN-CENELEC).  […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any data concerning patients or study participants health, collected within the context of health care or clinical trials (e.g., name, address, living conditions, health data, life style habits, social security […]
Legal interoperability means to “[a]lign legislation so that exchanged data is accorded proper legal weight” (Re eHEIF).  […]
“Interoperability governance covers the ownership, definition, development, maintenance, monitoring, promoting and implementing of interoperability frameworks in the context of multiple organisations working together to provide services. It is a high-level function providing leadership, organisational […]
The ability of organisations to interact towards mutually beneficial goals, involving the sharing of information and knowledge between these organisations, through the business processes they support, by means of the exchange of data between […]
Initiative launched at European level to foster the cross-border adoption of digitally driven marketable solutions. This horizontal action is part of the European Commission strategy on the Digital transformation of health and care in […]
Human-centred design (HCP) is an approach to the development of interactive systems that focuses on the user and his or her needs and expectations. […]
The European Social Fund is Europe’s main tool for the improvement of employment opportunities and social inclusion. It is also meant to fight poverty and promote education, by investing in Europe’s people and their […]
eIDAS (electronic Identification, Authentication and trust Services) provide a predictable regulatory environment to enable secure and seamless electronic interactions between businesses, citizens and public authorities.[54] [54] Ec.europe.eu (2021). Trust services and Electronic identification (eID) […]
“Open Data Directive” (EU) 2019/1024): Documents the re-use of which is associated with important benefits for society, the environment and the economy, in particular because of their suitability for the creation of value-added services, […]
A situation in which a specific eHealth application or service could potentially be used. A high level use case may call one or more use cases. A functional description of a process, as seen […]
Health-Adjusted Life Years measure the health of a population, to estimate burden of disease. HALYs are used to measure the combined effects of mortality and morbidity in populations; comparisons between illnesses or interventions. They […]
Wikipedia: meta-database management system which transparently maps multiple autonomous database systems into a single federated database. The constituent databases are interconnected via a computer network and may be geographically decentralized. The constituent database systems […]
Data that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) to the greatest extent possible, enhancing their usefulness and propensity for reuse, by humans and at scale by machines. FAIR data are not necessarily Open data; data […]
Organisations recognised by the European Union and by the European Free Trade Association as being responsible for developing and defining voluntary standards at European level (Source: CEN). […]
A cloud for research data in Europe, promoted by the European Commission to provide all researchers, innovators, companies and citizens with seamless access to an open-by-default, efficient and cross-disciplinary environment for storing, accessing, reusing data, […]
One DALY can be thought of as one lost year of “healthy” life. The sum of these DALYs across the population, or the burden of disease, can be thought of as a measurement of […]
A Digital Single Market (DSM) is one in which the free movement of persons, services and capital is ensured and where the individuals and businesses can seamlessly access and engage in online activities under […]
Cost-benefit analysis is a way of assessing the impact of a programme or a measure by weighing the advantages (benefits) against the disadvantages (costs).[50] [50] Ec.europa.eu (2021). Mobility and Transport: Cost-benefit analysis [online]. European […]
ASSIST – Assessment and evaluation tools for e-service deployment in health, care and ageing – is an assessment and evaluation framework and tool built by empirica [46] for assessing the economic sustainability of telemedicine […]
Analysis that calculates and compares the costs and effects of two or more interventions, allowing to establish priorities among them.[51] [51] https://www.who.int/heli/economics/costeffanalysis/en/ […]
Capacity can be defined as the ability of individuals and organisations or organisational units to perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Capacity building is an evidence-driven process of strengthening the abilities of individuals, organisations, […]
“The organisational ability to intentionally and systematically use improvement approaches, methods and practices, to change processes and products/services to generate improved performance.”[48] The key word here is ‘use’. While capacity provides the potential for […]
A business use case is to describe, in technology free terminology, how a business process is used by people or systems external to the business to achieve their goals (composed from several definitions in the literature).  […]
A business model is a representation of how an organisation makes (or intends to make) money. Based on an extensive literature research and real-world experience we define a business model as consisting of nine […]
A?business model?describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value, in economic, social, cultural or other contexts. The process of?business model?construction and modification is also called?business model?innovation and forms a part […]
Transport Layer Security is a protocol that ensures privacy between communicating applications and the users on the Internet. When a server and client communicate, TLS ensures that no third party may overhear or tamper […]
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. SSL was developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. […]
‘Phishing’, a word play on ‘fishing’, uses communication methods, like email and instant messages, to trick individuals into divulging sensitive information directly or directing them to a malicious web site where malware will be […]
Malware is a short term for malicious software. Malware is defined as any software that is used to interrupt or disrupt computer operations, gather sensitive information, or gain access to certain files or programs. […]
Continuous protection of data that flows between two points in a network, effected by encrypting data when it leaves its source,  keeping it encrypted while it passes through any intermediate computers (such as routers), […]
Encryption is a process of maintaining data integrity and confidentiality by converting plain data into a secret code with the help of an algorithm. The corresponding reverse process is “decryption”, a transformation that restores […]
Most frequently referred to as the legally binding, electronic equivalent of an individual’s handwritten signature, which can be as basic as a typed name, a credential such as a password, or a digitized image […]
A value computed with a cryptographic algorithm and associated with a data object in such a way that any recipient of the data can use the signature to verify the data’s origin and integrity. […]
Cybersecurity are the processes employed to safeguard and secure assets used to carry information of an organisation from being stolen or attacked. It requires extensive knowledge of the possible threats. Identity management, risk management […]
The mathematical science that deals with transforming data to render its meaning unintelligible (i.e., to hide its semantic content), prevent its undetected alteration, or prevent its unauthorized use. If the transformation is reversible, cryptography […]
A machine learning approach inspired by the human brain in that it has a network of small processing units (analogously to human neurons) with lots of weighted connections among them, adjusted during the training phase to […]
A file format structured so that software applications can easily identify, recognise and extract specific data, including individual statements of fact, and their internal structure.  […]
One of AI’s sub-disciplines, denoting the ability of a piece of software to learn from its environment or from a very large set of representative data, enabling systems to adapt their behaviour to changing circumstances or […]
A dynamic global network infrastructure with self-configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual “things” have identities, physical attributes and virtual personalities, use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated […]
HPC refers to computing systems having extremely high computational capabilities, today able to perform more than 1015 operations per second (petascale) and expected in a few years to reach 1018 operations per second (exascale). (Source: EC)  […]
A digital replica (computer model) of a real-world device, process or person that can be used in virtual testing to predict problems before they occur, find optimal solutions, and reduce risks.  […]
A particularly accurate machine learning approach with less need of human guidance, referring to the fact that the neural network has several layers between the input and the output, learning the overall input-output relation […]
A collection of data, published or curated by a single agent, and available for access or download in one or more formats. (Source: The Data Catalogue Vocabulary (DCAT) of W3C[45]) [45] http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/REC-vocab-dcat-20140116/#class-dataset […]
The storing, processing and use of data on remotely located computers accessed over the internet. (Source: EC)  […]
The best known distributed ledger technology providing trust, traceability and security in systems that exchange data or assets, enabling a ?nal and de?nitive record of transactions to be held in a network across a […]
Artificial intelligence refers to systems designed by humans that, given a complex goal, act in the physical or digital world by perceiving their environment, interpreting the collected structured or unstructured data, reasoning on the […]
IMI Code of Practice: The person or body that, in the case of pseudonymised data, is in charge of holding the key so as to safeguard the privacy of the patient or study participant [44]. The trusted […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any natural or legal person other than the data subject, the controller, the processor and the persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or the processor, are authorised […]
IMI Code of Practice: The public authority (or authorities) in each member state responsible for monitoring the application of the administrative measures and regulations adopted within their member state pursuant to the Data Protection […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any person participating in a research study, whether or not a clinical trial. It can refer to patients or healthy volunteers (it does not include health care professionals).  […]
ISO: measure of importance assigned to information to denote its need for protection.  […]
“Open Data Directive” (EU) 2019/1024): The use by persons or legal entities of documents held by: (a) public sector bodies, for commercial or non-commercial purposes other than the initial purpose within the public task […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any scientific research project including clinical trials and fundamental research, aiming at gaining scientific knowledge in the health sector.  […]
IMI Code of Practice: The process of linking de-identified data to the study participant. UK Information Commissioner’s Office: process of analysing data or combining it with other data with the result that individuals become […]
IMI Code of Practice: Personal data that cannot be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, as long as such additional information is kept separately and subject to technical […]
IMI Code of Practice: Process of removing all elements allowing the identification of an individual person, except the key(s) allowing linking the data to the person. Such key shall be randomly generated and subject […]
The General Data Protection Regulation is a new data privacy and security law which includes hundreds of pages’ worth of new requirements for organizations around the world. This new law was put into effect […]
ISO/TS 25237:2008: personal identifier that is different from normally used personal identifiers. Note 1: This may be either derived from the normally used personal identifier in a reversible or irreversible way, or alternatively be […]
IMI Code of Practice: Data needed for the specific research project which have not yet been collected or are not yet part of another research project. In contrast, retrospective data has already been collected […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organisation, storage, adaption or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use […]
ISO/IEC 2382-8: freedom from intrusion into the private life or affairs of an individual when that intrusion results from undue or illegal gathering and use of data about that individual.  […]
ISO/TS 22600-1:2006: set of legal, political, organizational, functional and technical obligations for communication and cooperation.  […]
UK Information Commissioner’s Office: alteration of values within a data set to guard against data-linkage.  […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (data subject); an identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an […]
ISO 27799:2007: processes by which an organization obtains assurance that the risks to its information, and thereby the operational capabilities and integrity of the organization, are effectively identified and managed.  […]
IMI Code of Practice: Previously undiagnosed medical conditions that are discovered unintentionally and are unrelated to the current medical condition which is being treated or tests being performed[41]. [41] See Incidental findings, retrieved 06/08/2014 […]
ISO: informational consent that is freely and directly given, indicated by an action or an inaction rather than a formal verbal or written indication of agreement on the part of the data subject.  […]
ISO/TS 25237:2008: process of using claimed or observed attributes of an entity to single out the entity among other entities in a set of identities.  […]
Under the GDPR, health data is defined as “personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services, which reveal information about his or […]
IMI Code of Practice: All personal data relating to the genetic characteristics of an individual which have been inherited or acquired as they result from an analysis of a biological sample from the individual […]
ISO 18308:2010: permission that is freely and directly given, expressed either viva voice or in writing.  […]
UK Information Commissioner’s Office: technique used to control the risk of individuals being identified from statistical data – typical methods include removing or disguising data relating to individuals with unusual sets of attributes.  […]
ISO/TS 14265:2011: reveal data to those not routinely authorized to have it.  […]
IMI Code of Practice: Process of rendering data pseudonymised or anonymised. ISO/TS 25237:2008: general term for any process of removing the association between a set of identifying data and the data subject. […]
MI Code of Practice: The person whose personal data are collected, held or processed[38]. ISO/TS 14265:2011: identified or identifiable natural person, who is the subject of personal data. [38] See European Data Protection Supervisor, […]
UK Information Commissioner’s Office: common set of rules to be adopted by the various organisations involved in a data sharing operation.  […]
UK Information Commissioner’s Office: the disclosure of data from one or more organisations to a third party organisation or organisations, or the sharing of data between different parts of an organisation.  […]
ISO TS 25237: 2008: technical and social regimen for negotiating, managing, and ensuring informational privacy, confidentiality, and security.  […]
UK Information Commissioner’s Office: technique that involves bringing together and analysing data from a variety of sources, typically data that relates to the same individual.  […]
ISO/TS 14265:2011: operation that results in the permanent, unrecoverable removal of information about an object from memory or storage (e.g., by multiple overwrites with a series of random bits).  […]
IMI Code of Practice: The natural or legal person, or any other body, which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data[35]. [35] In a clinical […]
ISO/TS 14265:2011: any freely given specific and informed indication of his wishes by which the data subject signifies his agreement to personal data relating to him being processed.  […]
ISO 13606-4:2009: ensuring that information is accessible only to those authorised to have access.  […]
IMI Code of Practice: Any investigation in human subjects intended to discover or verify the effect of one or more investigational health interventions (e.g., drugs, diagnostics, devices, therapy protocols) that generate safety and efficacy […]
ISO 7498-2:1988: process of reliably identifying security subjects by securely associating an identifier and authenticator.  […]
ENV 13608-1:2000: property that ensures that any action of any security subject on any security object may be examined in order to establish the real operational responsibilities.  […]
ISO: informational consent done in the absence of any formal recorded or verbal indication of agreement or any overt action (or inaction) on the part of the data subject.  […]
IMI Code of Practice: Data which was identifiable when collected but which are not identifiable anymore (have been rendered anonymous). Anonymous data are no longer personal data. UK Information Commissioner’s Office: data in a […]
IMI Code of Practice: Process of removing all elements allowing the identification of an individual person (i.e., of rendering data anonymous). ISO/TS 25237:2008: process that removes the association between the identifying data set and […]
Data Governance is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using […]
Data donation research is research in which people voluntarily contribute their own personal data that was generated for a different purpose to a collective dataset.[36] [36] https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10.5334/cstp.178/ […]
ISO/EN 13606-1:2008: chronological record of activities of information system users which enables prior states of the information to be faithfully reconstructed. […]
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that summarises information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner.[33] […]
IMI Code of Practice: Data of several individuals that have been combined to show general trends or values.  […]
ISO 7498-2:1989: prevention of unauthorized use of a resource, including the prevention of use of a resource in an unauthorized manner.  […]
The movement of data, documents, or tasks through a work process; generally used in the context of technologies that automate workflows. Data Governance programs often strive to address workflows by embedding governance controls (e.g., […]
Explicit or implicit messages sent by an organization’s leadership. To be successful, compliance and governance programs generally require a strong tone from the top about expectations for participation.  […]
Data that is private, personal, or proprietary and must be protected from unauthorized access.  […]
In a broad sense, to assess, minimize, and prevent negative consequences posed by a potential threat. The term “Risk Management” has significantly different meanings that can affect Data Governance programs. At an enterprise level, […]
Change in expectations that says that it’s no longer acceptable to simply “do” work. Instead, for work that exists in an environment with compliance requirements, the work is not complete until you 1. Do […]
It is information that identifies or could be used to identify a person, such as the name, contact details (such as address, phone number, email address, password, identification number on government-issued ID), financial information […]
Data about data. The definition and scope of metadata depends upon context. In the context of Information Management, metadata is generally thought of as providing information (what database stores it? what data type is […]
Master Data are the “nouns” upon which business transactions take action. Master Data describes core entities of an enterprise that are used by multiple business process and IT systems. Examples are parties (e.g., customers, employees, […]
The implementation and management of Quality IT Services that meet the needs of the Business. IT Service Management is performed by IT Service Providers through an appropriate mix of people, Process and Information Technology. […]
A key function of IT Governance, IT portfolio management is the formal process for managing IT assets such as software, hardware, middleware, an IT project, internal staff, an application or external consulting.  […]
ITGI (The IT Governance Institute) defines Information Technology governance as “the leadership, organizational structures, and processes that ensure that the enterprise’s IT sustains and extends the enterprise’s strategies and objectives.”  […]
A structured process for reaching a solution to a problem while considering the needs of all stakeholders. Most Data Governance programs acknowledge that successful resolution of data-related issues requires politically-neutral facilitation of the decision-making process, with […]
A process for scoping and defining a problem prior to solving it. How a decision is framed limits the possible choices that are seriously considered.  […]
In its broadest definition, a discipline, process, and/or program focusing on the design and organization of data, unstructured information, and documents. In the context of Enterprise Architecture, it is a synonym for Data Architecture, […]
A data economy is a global digital ecosystem, that enables free movement of data within the EU. Furthermore, data enables optimization and decision-making processes as well as innovations in a wide range of areas.[28] […]
An HDC is a health data bank. The account holders, also referred to as members, users, or citizens, can collect and store their health-related information, for example, from the EPR, fitness or sleeping apps, […]
An acronym for Governance, Risk Management, Compliance, Security, and Data Quality, used often by Data Governance and Data Quality programs to acknowledge the interdependencies of these five disciplines in managing data.  […]
An acronym for Governance, Risk, and Compliance used often by management in financial institutions to acknowledge the interdependencies of these three disciplines in setting policy. See also GRC-SQ and Risk Management.  […]
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a comprehensive framework used to manage and align an organization’s business processes, information technology (IT) software and hardware, local and wide area networks, people, operations and projects with the organization’s […]
The system of determining who makes a decision, and when, and how, and under what circumstances. Formalizing Decision Rights is a key function of Data Governance.  […]
A person with data-related responsibilities as set by a Data Governance or Data Stewardship program. Often, Data Stewards fall into multiple types. Data Quality Stewards, Data Definition Stewards, Data Usage Stewards, etc.  […]
Those who use, affect, or are affected by data. Data Stakeholders may be upstream producers, gatherers, or acquirers of information; downstream consumers of information, those who manage, transform, or store data, or those who […]
Person or institution that is looking for data and provides the necessary infrastructure, e.g. a publicly available Semantic Container initialized with a semantic description of the data request and intended purpose of the collected […]
The assurance that a person’s or organization’s personal and private information is not inappropriately disclosed. Ensuring Data Privacy requires Access Management, eSecurity, and other data protection efforts.  […]
The discipline, process, and organizational group that conducts analysis of data objects used in a business or other context, entifies the relationships among these data objects, and creates models that depict those relationships. See also Data […]
A centralized organizational entity responsible for facilitating and coordinating Data Governance and/or Stewardship efforts for an organization. It supports a decision-making group, such as a Data Stewardship Council.  […]
The smallest piece of information considered meaningful and usable. A single logical data fact, the basic building block of a Logical Data Model.  […]
A person donating personal data (may have the option to provide his/her email, signing the data with a private key, and restricting the allowed usage of the provided data)  […]
Data Access is the authorized, on-demand ability to access, modify or edit selected data, regardless of location. Data Access is one of the main aspects of establishing successful data governance systems. […]
A database about data and database structures. A catalog of all data elements, containing their names, structures, and information about their usage, for the benefit of programmers and others interested in the data elements […]
A discipline, process, and program focusing on integrating sets of information. One of the four Enterprise Architectures (with Application Architecture, Business Architecture, and System Architecture). See also Data Modeling  […]
An approach to managing multiple records containing information about an organization’s customers. In this approach, instead of combining all information into a single repository, a combination of technologies, processes and services are used to […]
Create, Read, Update, Delete. Used to describe access rights for data.  […]
A means of managing a risk or ensuring that an objective is achieved. Controls can be preventative, detective, or corrective and can be fully automated, procedural, or technology-assisted human-initiated activites. They can include actions, devices, […]
A discipline, set of practices, and/or organizational group that deals with adhering to laws, regulations, standards, and contractual arrangements. Also, the adherence to requirements. Data Governance programs often support many types of compliance requirements: […]
A formal process used to ensure that a process, product, service, or technology component is modified only in accordance with agreed-upon rules. Many organizations have formal Change Control Boards that review and approve proposed […]
An independent examination of an effort to determine its compliance with a set of requirements. An audit may be carried out by internal or external groups.  […]
Activities designed to reach a measure of confidence. Assurance is different from audit, which is more concerned with compliance to formal standards or requirements.  […]
A discipline that focuses on ensuring that only approved roles are able to create, read, update, or delete data – and only using appropriate and controlled methods. Data Governance programs often focus on supporting Access Management […]
Twinnings range from knowledge exchange to adaptation or adoption of the transferred solution and can be grouped into four types. 1. Knowledge exchange and training: targets local authorities which do not have much experience […]
Digital know-how which is transferred through the twinning activities to the Twinning Adopter. They may be products, services, processes, methodologies, strategies and/or business models. The solutions must be based on digital technologies. They must […]
The organisation representing a region/city/country or other collection of organisations that will adopt the twinning solution. […]
Twinning activities may include, for example, hosting meetings, technical groups, travelling, acquiring licenses, paying fees for professional services.  […]
A DHE informational document on the purpose of twinnings, twinning conditions, information on tendering and the evaluation and award criteria.  […]
Person-centred health and care is an approach to care that consciously adopts the perspectives of individuals, families and communities, and sees them as participants as well as beneficiaries of trusted health systems that respond […]
Long-term chronic conditions are defined as diseases that last for a longer period of time.[23] Chronic Conditions (e.g., osteoarthritis, chronic liver disease, low back pain) are major causes of disability, ill-health, health-related retirement and […]
Integrated chronic care is a set of methods and models at the financing, administrative, organisational, service delivery and clinical levels, with the aim of improving connectivity, alignment and collaboration within and between the health […]
A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united to meet common economic, social and cultural goals.[15] A health cooperative focuses primarily on working on health-related issues. [15] Ec.europa.eu (2021). Cooperatives [online]. European commission. […]
COM(2018) 233 final: Enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market; empowering citizens and building a healthier society, Brussels, 25.04.2018  […]
An organisation that provides care and support through registered volunteers without a formal contract with either an HCPO or SCPO (e.g. Red Cross, Alzheimer’s Association).  […]
An organisation that has been commissioned or contracted to deliver what the region or country considers to be social care services and / or support (e.g. Municipality Authority, Third Sector organisation).  […]
A patient means any natural person who seeks to receive or receives healthcare. (Cross Border Directive 2011[25]) [25] EU: Article 3f) of Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare […]
An integrated care pathway streamlines the management of health problems across prevention, acute care, rehabilitation, chronic and palliative care so as to create a continuum of care.  […]
Integrated care includes initiatives seeking to improve outcomes of care through linkage of e.g., social and health care or co-ordination of services of providers along the continuum of care. It thus overcomes the challenges […]
An individual who is registered in any organisation to deliver care, services, or support to a care recipient.   […]
The United States Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 defines health literacy as the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and […]
Health care means health services provided by health care professionals to patients to assess, maintain or restore their state of health, including the prescription, dispensation and provision of medicinal products and medical devices. (Cross […]
Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. [16] [16] https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/constitution […]
An employed individual who is qualified to deliver care, services, treatment or support to a care recipient (e.g. Health care Assistant, Nursing Assistant).   […]
An organisation that has been commissioned or contracted to deliver what the respective authority considers to be health care services and / or support (e.g. Hospitals, Health Authorities, General Practices).  […]
A doctor of medicine, a nurse responsible for general care, a dental practitioner, a midwife or a pharmacist, or another professional exercising activities in the health care sector which are restricted to a regulated […]
Active and Healthy Ageing is the process of optimizing opportunities related to health, participation and safety in order to improve quality of life.[13] [13] Bosch-Farré, C., Garre-Olmo, J., Bonmati-Tomàs, A., Malagón-Aguilera, M., Gelabart-Vilella, S., […]
Services or devices that use information and communication technology (ICT) as a central component of health promotion and disease prevention, refer to a process through which people can gain greater control over the decisions […]
Health data tools are programmes, software systems, apps, etc. that are intended to simplify the collection, exchange and analysis of health data. […]
The European Health Data Space is an electronic cross-border health service, which gives EU countries the opportunity to exchange health data in a secure, efficient and interoperable way. The EHDS is an infrastructure ensuring […]
An individual who receives or seeks any care services or support considered to be integrated care, from another person or organisation. In certain circumstances, a care recipient may be the term used for a person receiving […]
An individual who is responsible for co-ordinating the care and support of a Care Recipient. It could be a role undertaken by a health care professional or the care recipient or family carer. […]
Telemedicine is the provision of health care services, through the use of ICT, in situations where the health professional and the patient (or two health professionals) are not in the same location. It involves the secure transmission of […]
Telehealth is broader in definition than telemedicine as it includes computer-assisted telecommunications to support management, surveillance, literature and access to medical knowledge. (WHO definition)  […]
Personalised medicine refers to a medical model using characterization of individuals’ phenotypes and genotypes (e.g. molecular profiling, medical imaging, lifestyle data) for tailoring the right therapeutic strategy for the right person at the right […]
A PHR contains the same types of information as EHRs – diagnoses, medications, immunisations, family medical histories, and provider contact information – but is designed to be set up, accessed and managed by patients. Patients can use PHRs to […]
People-centred health services is an approach to care that consciously adopts the perspectives of individuals, families and communities, and sees them as participants as well as beneficiaries of trusted health systems that respond to their […]
A Patient Summaryis an identifiable dataset of essential and understandable health information that is made available “at the point of care to deliver safe patient care during unscheduled care [and planned care] with its […]
There are two major concepts of patient portals. The health care-centered patient portals are national health care-related online applications that allow access to all or part of an electronic medical record (EMR) and personal […]
Empowerment is “a multi-dimensional process that helps people gain control over their own lives and increases their capacity to act on issues that they themselves define as important.” Collective empowerment is “a process through […]
mHealth is the use of mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless devices, for medical and public health practice. mHealth applications include examples such as treatment […]
Health technology means a medicinal product, a medical device or medical and surgical procedures as well as measures for disease prevention, diagnosis or treatment used in healthcare. (Cross Border Directive 2011[9]) [9] EU: Article […]
Health Information Exchange (HIE) refers to the process of electronically transferring, or aggregating and enabling access to, patient health information and data across provider organisations. Exchange may take place between different types of entities […]
ePrescription consists of electronic prescribing and electronic dispensing: ePrescribing is defined as the electronic prescribing of medicine with the use of software and the electronic transmission of said prescription data to a pharmacy where the medicine can […]
This commonly refers to a unique number or chip card used to electronically identify the patient (epSOS definition). Patient identification is necessary to correctly match a patient to an intended treatment and prevent harm due to potential […]
eHDSI (eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure) describes the implementation of services and infrastructure using ICTs that enable cross border Healthcare services.[6] [6] Solution Provider (2017). The eHealth DSI [pdf]. EC (DG Sante). Version 10. Link: […]
EMRs are digital versions of the paper charts in clinician offices, clinics, and hospitals. EMRs contain notes and information collected by and for the clinicians in that office, clinic, or hospital and are mostly […]
EHR is a comprehensive medical and cross-institutional record or similar documentation of the past and present physical and mental state of health of an individual in electronic form. EHRs also provide for ready availability […]
Short term for electronic Infrastructure, comprising a set of ICT based resources (e. g. networks, grids, data centres, collaborative environments) and support operations (e. g. operation centres, service registries, credential delegation services, certificate authorities, training, […]
eDispensing is defined as the electronic retrieval of a prescription and the dispensing of the medicine to the patient as indicated in the corresponding ePrescription. Once the medicine has been dispensed, the dispenser is to report […]
Digital health literacy refers to the ability to seek, find, understand and appraise health-related information from electronic resources and apply the knowledge gained to making appropriate health decisions in order to address or solve a […]
Cross-border information exchange means the process of sending and receiving information across legislative boundaries using interoperable systems in order to read and further process this information in a meaningful way.  […]
Cross-border health care means health care provided or prescribed in a Member State other than the Member State of affiliation (ie. Member State competent to give authorisation to receive treatment outside the Member State […]
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level. It supports the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently […]
A set of terminological resources that can be implemented in software applications. They represent clinically relevant information in a semantically structured form of code that can be used by automated applications. These codes represent explicit formal definitions […]
Big data in health refers to large routinely or automatically collected datasets which are electronically captured and stored. The data is reusable in the sense that it is multipurpose data. It involves the fusion and connection of existing databases […]
Twinning schemes are a novel concept that aims to de-risk investment in digital innovative ICT solutions by financing the exchange of knowledge and good practices in digital health solution with high potential for reliability […]
Personas are designed end-users of technology solution with specific and distinct needs. They constitute eventual user segments. The concept is sometimes enhanced by an aspect of behavioural characteristics that takes into consideration psycho-social forces and health care choices and outcomes.  […]
The Communication on Digital Transformation of Health and Care (DTHC) in the Digital Single Market identifies three priorities: 1. Citizens’ secure access to their health data, also across borders – enabling citizens to access […]
In the context of this project digital solutions are understood to be good and innovative practices including lessons learned.  […]
Digital health and care refers to tools and services that use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management of health and lifestyle. Digital health and care has the […]
The concept behind the Collaboration platforms is adopted from the 3C collaboration model developed by Borghoff and Schlichter[1] that describes “Cooperation, Communication and Coordination as the main challenges for the members in a collaborative […]