Ginés Alarcón is one of the most authoritative voices of the telecommunications sector. An industrial engineer from the UPC, he is president of CTecno, the Foundation of the Catalonia Technological Circle, and also chairman of the Nae consultancy. His professional career has always been related to ICT and his posts of responsibility have included managing director of T-Systems Iberia, vice-chairman of the Lavinia group and general manager of Colt Telecom in Barcelona. He is currently director-general of the Barcelona Mobile World Capital Foundation, which amongst other things encourages different programs such as that of the Competence Centres. These programmes are intended to develop innovative projects that create industrial activity and foster the use of mobile technologies and applications in different sectors, including mHealth.

The UdG Science and Technology Park and the TicSalut Foundation, in collaboration with UBI France, the French Chamber of Commerce in Barcelona and the Mediterranean-Pyrenees Euro-region are organising the third R&D+i Meeting in ICT and Health on 7 and 8 June in Gerona. This time the meeting will deal with the area of well-being and quality of life, in addition to ICT and health. This new edition of the Meeting is also expected to consolidate the relations and to discover opportunities in the cross- border region.

Manufacturers of medical devices and apparatuses have managed to rise, as a whole, as a strong sector after aiming their products mainly at two segments of the population: consumers concerned with a healthy lifestyle, and; patients that have to periodically monitor their state of health as chronic or dependent sick. Between these are the so-called information seekers, a potential market unattended both by the consumer electronics companies and by those specialised in medical equipment. Today's challenge for producers is to gain terrain in the sector by offering these consumers new gadgets.

The largest annual European conference on eHealth, the eHealth Week, will be taking place in Copenhagen from 7 to 9 May coinciding with the Danish presidency of the Council of the European Union. This year's edition will stress the continuity of assistance and how the health information flows between the hospital and the home. Furthermore, the strengthening of the power of patients and the opportunities for investing in information technologies in order to manage chronic illness are other outstanding subjects of the programmed talks, seminars and workshops. Politicians, health managers and professionals of health and ICT from all around Europe will meet at the eHealth Week.

Chronic illnesses and dependence not only have a direct impact on patients’ health and quality of life and on those of their families, but also on the health-care system. In this sense, society needs new management policies and professionals trained to deal with chronic illness. The Higher School of Health Sciences of the TecnoCampus Mataró-Maresme, a centre ascribed to the UPF, is therefore giving the new University masters degree in Chronicity and Dependence along with the UAB. The Fundació TicSalut, the Consorcio Sanitario del Maresme and the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona are taking part in this project.

Italy, Holland and Poland, along with Catalonia, are working on the CLEAR (Clinical Leading Environment for the Assessment and validation of Rehabilitation protocols in homecare) project. This is a step forward in establishing a telerehabilitation service so that the doctors can design, develop and implement clinical protocols to assist patients in comfortable surroundings, such as their home. The Fundació TicSalut, the Fundación Instituto Catalán del Envejecimiento and the Fundación Privada Instituto de Neurorrehabilitación Guttmann are the Catalan institutions working on the CLEAR project, which is intended to contribute to and, at the same time, to standardise eHealth services in the European Union.