"The world has lost, in the person of the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, a visionary, a communicator and an entrepreneur extraordinaire", said the Chairman of the biggest parliamentary Group in the European Parliament (EPP, centre-right).

Joseph Daul expressed his admiration for everything that Steve Jobs achieved, distinguished by his humility and his capacity to make the most sophisticated communication technologies accessible to the world.

People who are informed and proactive about their health tend to distance themselves from those with unhealthy habits, potentially missing opportunities to spread good health, according to the Edelman Health Barometer, presented today at the European Health Forum Gastein. 

Cross-border health threats reaching from bioterrorism to chemical incidents or pandemic outbreaks have triggered solid international cooperation to detect, assess and manage such scenarios, experts told the European Health Forum Gastein. The Global Health Security Initiative has developed into a trusting forum of like-minded countries working together on public health preparedness and responses to health crises and terrorist-related threats.

There is a marked shortage of medical staff and care workers all over Europe which could become critical in the next decade. More and more countries are resolving the problem by hiring personnel from other EU countries or beyond – countries which are themselves threatened with staff shortages. Experts at today at the European Health Forum Gastein said solutions were needed, both at European and a global level. Otherwise some countries would solve their staffing problems at the expense of others. 

Swedish health finance expert Prof Bengt Jönsson told today’s EHFG workshop on the economic challenges of treating chronic illness that the economic crisis had worsened an already dire situation. There was already less and less money available to finance medical advances. So how about performance-based agreements (P4P) - payment by results?