Over a century ago, with the work of Alexander Graham Bell, the motivation underlying the first use of the telephone in communication had a health-related origin: a doctor attempted to be in contact with his deaf mother and sister. Early developments in electronic patient records took place over 40 years ago through the pioneering work of Ed Hammond and his interest in community and family medicine. Very soon, the European Union will be celebrating a 20-year history of co-financing eHealth research and development initiatives. Multiple eHealth programmes and projects around Europe have been the result
