At a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) Ministers in Naples, July 1994, it was agreed that action be taken to promote the development of a Global Information Society. In February 1995, 11 Themes were agreed one of which (Theme 8) was Healthcare. In 1998 Russia joined the G7 nations making it G8. In the remainder of the report the term G8 is used. Australia has been an integral part of the G8 Initiative and where the term G8 is used, it should be taken as including Australia.

Within the Healthcare Theme 8 a number of sub-projects were launched. Subproject 5 was initiated to investigate “Enabling Mechanisms”, that is the legal, ethical, technical and human factors that have to be resolved to enable a global information infrastructure for health. Its activities are determined by government nominated representatives of each of the nations involved which, in the case of Sub-project 5, comprised all the G7 nations plus Australia and the EU commission. Although not nominated by Government, Russian experts have also been involved. The UK leads Sub-project 5 and provides its secretariat.

In 1997, in a document “The Barriers”, the Sub-project identified what it saw as the barriers to the creation of a Global Information Society for Health, and their impact. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was undertaken involving over 350 international experts in 29 countries. This validated the views in “The Barriers” report. It also provided international opinions on the relative significance of the barriers; identified further barriers; and assisted in identifying international sources of advice and information.

Building on this background, a submission for funding support was made to the Information Society Project Office (ISPO) of the EU Commission. The project G7-ENABLE (henceforth called G8-ENABLE) was subsequently approved for a 12 month period, commencing January 1998. Ray Rogers and Joy Reardon are the project managers on behalf of the European Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, UK.

The objectives set for G8-ENABLE are detailed in Annex 1. The main deliverable is a report to G8 nations, the EU Commission and other key policy makers with:

• details of the barriers to achieving a Global Information Society for Health;

• advice on how they should be approached in international projects;

• sources of international information;

• and, most important, recommendations on actions that should be taken.

This is the report from G8-ENABLE. Its compilation has involved several hundred international experts (see Annex 2). Their help and support are gratefully acknowledged.

As government nominated representatives, the members of Sub-project 5 commend this report.

Ray Rogers, Project Manager G8-ENABLE and Leader of Sub-project 5 r.rogers@cwcom.net

Joy Reardon, Deputy Project Manager G8-ENABLE and Secretariat Sub-project 5 j.e.reardon@cwcom.net