EFA Executive Officer Susanna Palkonen spoke on ‘New networks, new technologies, new patient’ in the annual conference of the European Federation of Medical Informatics in Oslo at the end of August. Her message was that all IT health solutions – eHealth – must serve the real needs of users, including patients, and involve users in their development. It is clear that there is a willingness to bring this about, but know-how is not widespread. Tools developed by the European Patients’ Forum, for example, could aid patient involvement in a practical way. Examples of health IT solutions are electronic health records, telemedicine and various mobile applications.