ICT can make a vital contribution to improving the safety of European patients by helping to reduce medical errors and other negative incidents, thereby saving lives, and enhancing efficiency, in particular in the field of risk management in healthcare. The eHealth for Safety study has the following overarching goals:

• Identifying key issues, topics and challenges where ICT can have a high impact on patient safety and risk management in healthcare, and which have particular relevance in the European context, as well as on the level of the Member States
• Developing both a ten year vision/strategy and concrete recommendations for RTD measures (within the EU’s 7th framework programme and for longer term research activities)

These goals translate into a three-phase approach, consisting of (1) baseline research, (2) empirical analysis, and the development of (3) a synthesis report as well as a roadmap for further research. Good practice case studies will form part of the study in order to demonstrate concrete applications of ICT tools to enhance patient safety.