European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis comments on World Blood Donor Day 2018, urging young people to step forward and donate blood in order to keep the blood banks “constantly replenished”. In a statement on World Blood Donor Day 2018, Andriukaitis said: “Let us remember that blood is the lifeline that connects us and that we all […]
Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis comments on World Blood Donor Day 2018 Read More »
On 23 May 2018, the Commission presented the 2018 country-specific recommendations as part of the European Semester Spring Package, setting out its economic policy guidance for Member States for the next 12 to 18 months. Director General of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety Xavier Prats Monné discusses the implications for the health sector. The European
European Commission proposes health recommendations to 12 EU countries Read More »
An EU-funded study led by King’s College London suggests parents and carers might need to be even more rigorous than hitherto advised in protecting children against the harmful effects of the sun. The study shows that children may experience more harmful DNA damage than adults from small amounts of sun exposure. Overall the project –
Even better sun protection needed for children Read More »
The Commission is proposing measures to tackle disinformation online, including an EU-wide Code of Practice on Disinformation, support for an independent network of fact-checkers, and a series of actions to stimulate quality journalism and promote media literacy. The recent Facebook/Cambridge Analytica revelations demonstrated exactly how personal data can be exploited in electoral contexts, and are
Tackling online disinformation: EU proposes a Code of Practice Read More »
The European Commission is proposing to limit workers’ exposure to five cancer-causing chemicals, in addition to the 21 substances that have already been limited or proposed to be limited. Estimates show that this proposal would improve working conditions for over 1,000,000 EU workers and prevent over 22,000 cases of work-related illness. The following five carcinogens
Protecting workers against cancer-causing chemicals Read More »
Improving health system efficiency is a compelling policy goal, especially in systems facing serious resource constraints. However, in order to improve efficiency we must know how to properly measure it. A new policy brief therefore proposes an analytic framework for understanding and interpreting many of the most common health care efficiency indicators. The brief’s key
How to make sense of health system efficiency comparisons Read More »
The EU Expert Group on Health Systems Performance Assessment (HSPA) has published its report “A new drive for primary care in Europe: rethinking the assessment tools and methodologies” to help policy makers and health practitioners to set objectives and measure progress towards improving primary care services for the benefit of patients. The report examines core aspects of
Health Systems in the EU: Commission publishes report on Primary Care Read More »
The WHO European Region has the highest level of alcohol consumption in the world. However, the level of awareness of the link between alcohol consumption and increased risk of cancer remains low. World Cancer Day on 4 February 2018 was an opportunity to reinforce the important message that alcohol use is associated with an increased
Raising awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer Read More »
On 12–13 December 2017, a team of technical officers from WHO/Europe conducted a capacity-building workshop in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, on intersectoral planning on salt reduction. The workshop aimed to strengthen the knowledge and capacities of local public health practitioners to define priority interventions on salt reduction. According to the preliminary results of the National
Intersectoral salt reduction initiatives in Republic of Moldova Read More »
To truly understand the needs of adolescents, it is vital to listen to adolescents themselves. This was a central feature on the agenda of the first ever inter-country meeting and international conference addressing the mental health and well-being of adolescents living in central Asia, which took place on 17–20 January in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The meeting
Understanding and addressing the mental health needs of adolescents Read More »
