SESSIONS
This presentation sets out the main objectives and provisions of the proposed directive on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare, including the aspects related to e-health.
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Biography
Dr Bernard Merkel (BA, MA(Econ), PhD)is Head of the Health Strategy and Health Systems Unit in DG SANCO.
His unit is charged with the development of health policy in the EU, including linkages with other policies. Currently, his Unit is implementing the general EU health strategy, and developing initiatives on health care. It is also working on health investment under the EU structural funds.
Before joining the Commission in 1996, he was a civil servant in the UK Department of Health and Social Security (latterly DOH), working on various health policy issues, including AIDS, child health, and management of the NHS, as well as social policy. He was also for a time private secretary to the Secretary of State.
He has been a Visiting Fellow at LSE Health in the London School of Economics and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is on the Editorial Board of Eurohealth and has written a number of articles on health policy.
His training is mainly in the social sciences, where he has a doctorate in political theory.
