The European Commission presented a report on the progress of the Ambient Assisted Living joint programme (AAL JP) which highlights very high levels of involvement by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in projects, strong levels of financial support by participating countries and recommendations to ensure ongoing positive results.

Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Washington to promote a common approach on the interoperability of electronic health records and on education programmes for information technology and health professionals.

The European Commission has outlined an ambitious programme to work with Member States' public authorities to expand and improve the services which they offer via the Internet.

The European Commission is seeking the views of public and private organisations, companies and individual citizens on how Europe could scale up innovation to meet the challenges of the ageing population in Europe, and in particular on a pilot European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on active and healthy ageing, as set out in the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative, presented on 6 October by Maire Geoghegan Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science and Antonio Tajani, Vice-President for Industry and Entrepreneurship.

EU researchers, businesses and citizens can have free and open access to EU-funded research papers thanks to OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe), which the European Commission launched at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

Avila, a Spanish city known for its medieval walls, won the first-ever European award for improving access for people with disabilities. The European Commission awarded Avila the Access●City Award 2011.

Armenian Association of Telemedicine (AATM) announced the launch of its new telemedicine project aimed to establish a fully functional telemedicine connection between a primary health care facility in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), and AATM central office, Yerevan, Armenia.