The European Health Telematics Observatory, was started in 1996 as an initiative to support the dissemination and advancement of medical informatics and telematics research and development. in Europe. EHTO was an accompanying measure of the Health Telematics Application Programme, funded by the Commission of the European Union (1994 - 1998).

The Observatory has a physical location in Portugal (http://www.ehto.org/), where knowledge is gathered, stored and exchanged.
 

  EHTO is the first European Web solution, now extending world-wide, for tackling that problem.  It aims to collect and to disseminate most valuable information on all relevant issues relating to health telematics, including European standards, regulatory and ethical issues.  Moreover, it offers a space for displaying interactive news, and a space for on-line virtual Electronic demonstrations, available to users, industry and service providers. The objective is to create an efficient IT-health telematics market by overcoming the high fragmentation of decisional  structures of the health sector.  The target is to facilitate and to enhance the relations between users of technologies at all levels (health professionals, decision and policy makers, and hospital administrators) and providers of IT equipment and services (including telecom operators).

  EHTO approach is unique not only at European level but also world-wide.