ECHIM Final Report

FOREWORD
The ECHIM project was selected for funding by the European Commission in 2005 in
order to put the ECHI system (European Community Health Indicators) in place. On 23 rd
of October 2007 the European Commission adopted a new Health Strategy, “Together
for Health: A Strategic Approach for the EU 2008–2013”. Building on current work, this
Strategy aims to provide, for the first time, an overarching strategic framework spanning
core issues in health as well as health in all policies and global health issues. The Strategy
aims to set clear objectives to guide future work in partnership with Member States about
European Community Health Indicators with common mechanisms for the collection
of comparable health data at all levels, including a Communication on exchange of
health-related information. The Second Health Programme also established as a priority
the development of a sustainable health monitoring system with mechanisms for the
collection of comparable data and information, including appropriate indicators.
The development of the ECHI indicators and ECHIM as a tool for the implementation
of those indicators is not a scientific exercise, but an important part of the EU’s Health
Strategy. The main aims of ECHIM were a) to develop health indicators (based on
the ECHI shortlist), b) to initiate their implementation in most European Union
Member States, and c) to pave the way for the permanent Health Monitoring System
in Europe.
European and national public health policy needs solid health information derived
from valid and comparable sources. The information should be relevant and cover all
necessary aspects of health status, determinants of health and health care. Currently, the
key problems are lack of data for many indicators and the poor comparability between
countries and regions within them. The situation is also reflected in the inadequate use
of information as a basis for health policy in health policy development. During 2005–
2008 DG SANCO set up a number of projects to cover some of these information
needs, including ECHIM.
The aim of the ECHIM project was to lay the foundation for the further development
of health indicators and to initiate the implementation of these health indicators in all
EU Member States. The background of ECHIM comprised previous reports on the
organisation of health monitoring, previous indicator projects (since 2000), in particular
ECHI and ECHI-2 (health indicators) and EUHPID (health promotion indicators),
other content-specific projects such as those concerning health determinants, diabetes,
respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and horizontal projects such as EUPHIX (data
presentation), EUHSID (or HIS/HES, a database comprising all European national
HISs and HESs), ISARE III (regional indicators), and FEHES (Feasibility of a European
Health Examination Survey). See Annex 6 for the list of abbreviations.
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