While many European countries are still debating the potential of e-health and whether or not, and how, to get started, Finnish political commitment to e-health dates back to the mid-1990s.

Portuguese e-health policy is divided into three action lines – health information networks, on-line health services and patient smartcards.

Austria's healthcare system is the second largest amongst the German speaking countries, employing 210,000 doctors and nurses across private practices and 264 hospitals.

The main drive behind Italy's adoption of a national e-health programme has been modernisation of its healthcare system.

E-Health Europe outlines some of the key trends shaping the development of e-health in Germany, Europe's largest healthcare system. E-Health Europe's contributing editor Philipp Graetzel reports.

France, one of the top three economies in Europe, has embarked on an ambitious national healthcare IT programme based on electronic records and patient smart cards.

The development of nationwide electronic health records and image archives is proving difficult in many places. Yet Scotland is showing the way, having completed one of the first examples of a truly national solution, installed by Carestream Health.

Across the world, healthcare systems are looking to create regional and local electronic health records to improve the quality of care while reducing costs.

Healthcare facilities are facing a triple challenge. The volume of digital information is growing exponentially, especially in imaging as PACS markets mature.

InterSystems has two parts to its business. One is delivering patient administration and clinical decision support applications. The other is delivering database and integration technology.