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Taking the pulse of Europe’s e-health market (view
website)
 Are
Europe’s hospitals equipped to meet e-health opportunities?
This type of issue was covered by the Health Information
Network Europe (HINE) in the largest ever survey of hospitals
in Europe, just one of a range of studies it offers members.
This unparalleled survey involved telephone interviews
with hospital CIOs in 900 hospitals in 15 countries. “The
hospital census provides a unique benchmark of how sophisticated
hospitals are today in terms of e-health usage,” explains
Véronique Lessens, HINE project manager at Deloitte.
According to Lessens, the results, which emerged in October
2004, paint a very accurate picture in each country of
how ready hospitals actually are by looking at implementation,
barriers, infrastructure, IT spend etc. Deployment of IT
in many sectors has delivered major transformational change
and has the potential to improve healthcare significantly
in terms of access to health services, improved quality
of care and acceptable levels of patient safety, and radical
improvement in service productivity. But why has this not
happened in European hospitals?
While the HINE survey results indicate similar levels
of decision support/e-prescribing in US and European hospitals,
the way the architecture is deployed is currently far more
advanced in the US than in Europe. Major issues in Europe
also include a relatively low level of hospital IT spending
(EU15 average of 1.8 per cent of total hospital revenue),
an under-developed infrastructure (EU15 average of 3.52
staff per workstation), lack of information for decision
making at all levels, overall reluctance to use external
skills and general lack of understanding of the strategic
value of ICT.
HINE plans to showcase the top-level results of this survey
at the third European eHealth conference, which will take
place in Tromsø, Norway, 23-24 May 2005, expected
to attract 400-500 ministers, officials and experts.
HINE expects to extend the survey to other countries and
is looking at ways to refresh the data. Currently HINE
plans to repeat the survey at least every three years.
But HINE has more to offer.
“HINE has been designed as a way to open dialogue
between industry and decision makers across Europe,” continues
Lessens. “It provides market information to the IT
industry and helps shapes how e-health is dealt with in
Europe.” This means also taking account of developments
elsewhere in the world and benchmarking European systems
against the US, Asia Pacific and other world markets for
healthcare ICT.
The HINE service started with the help of EU funding as
an IST programme project. It evolved into a self-sustaining
subscription-based service hosted by Deloitte when start-up
funding ended in 2003. Although different yearly subscription
models exist, the majority of its subscriber organisations
are leading edge companies such as Agfa, CISCO, HP, iSoft,
McKesson, Microsoft, Philips, SAP, Siemens, to name but
a few.
Since its launch in 2001 HINE has provided healthcare
ICT intelligence on markets in eleven countries and analysed
the needs of patients, GPs, hospitals, payers, public authorities
and industry in each. To date Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain,
Sweden, and UK have all been covered. These country reports
provide subscribers with a consistent framework to track
penetration of e-health into European healthcare service
delivery.
National roadshows complement and promote these market
profiles. Last year the HINE roadshow in France brought
together HINE companies, Ministry of Health’s representatives,
key stakeholders including GMSIH and leading French hospitals
such as Assistance Public-Hôpitaux de Paris to hear
and discuss the latest market findings and company presentations.
Alongside the ongoing programme of country and pan-European
market analysis, specific studies are undertaken in key
areas that reflect the strategic interests of HINE subscribers.
In 2004 for example, HINE looked at the issues surrounding
patient safety and Computerised Physician Order Entry,
e-prescribing, mobile and wireless devices, clinical transformation
and BPR in healthcare, and plans in 2005 to report on electronic
patient/ health records and the use of mobile and wireless
devices, the platform strategy for hospitals in Europe
and e-hospital market metrics.
Through workshops HINE previews its strategic research,
briefing subscribers, and invites guest speakers to address
stakeholders and user representatives, another HINE channel
for networking and interaction.
“HINE provides an appropriate mechanism for industry
to understand the e-health market in Europe and see how
to move specific areas with promising growth,” says
Lessens summarising. “It allows [the healthcare ICT]
industry to contribute to discussions with decision makers
in the European Commission and Member States.”
Contact:
Véronique Lessens
Deloitte – HINE
Berkenlaan 8b
B-1831 Diegem
Belgium
Tel: +32-2-8002849
Source: Based on information from HIN-EUROPE
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