Editorial
Letter from Executive Director, HITM
Dear Reader, In a modern business context, one of the most distinctive features of information technology is the fact that it can add efficiency and value across an entire swathe of processes and specific operational disciplines. Clinical workflow design is, in some senses, the keystone for the healthcare IT arch, and clinical information systems (CIS) are the subject of this issue’s cover story. We pr...
HITM News
European Associations of Healthcare IT Managers (HITM)
The European Association of Healthcare IT Managers (HITM) is a non-profit pan-European umbrella association of all relevant national healthcare IT associations in Europe. Believing in the fundamental importance of unifying healthcare IT professionals at European and global levels, HITM is committed to increasing the professional authority and responsibility of healthcare IT managers and representing their...
The Netherlands
Focus on the Patient As of 2008, a total of 54 billion Euros will be available for healthcare in the Netherlands. Minister of Health Ab Klink argues that “ the keyword for the coming years is attention for the patient ” and together with State Secretary – Jet Bussemaker aims to focus on six themes : quality and innovation, prevention, safety, working in healthcare, and participation. It has bee...
Czech Republic
Czech Healthcare System Far Friendlier to PatientsThis year’s Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI) survey found the Czech health care system to have become much more patient-friendly than last year. The Czech Republic placed 15th out of 29 countries (the 27 EU member states, plus Switzerland and Norway), compared to 2006, when it ranked 22nd out of 26 countries. The Czech Republic received 612 points, finish...
Ukraine
International Conference “Telemedicine: Myths and Reality” The Association for Ukrainian Telemedicine and e-Health Development (a Member of The European Association of Healthcare IT Managers) presented the 1st International Conference “ Telemedicine : myths and reality ” on November 8 and 9 in Lviv, Ukraine. One of the key goals of the Association for Ukrainian Telemedicine and e-...
Lativa
New e-Health Programme to be Implemented A new Latvian e-Health programme, devised by the Ministry of Health, plans to devote over 40 million Euros to the development of e-Health applications over the next three years. The objective of the programme is to ensure that all citizens and healthcare providers are able to obtain clear, highquality and reliable information, in a quick and efficient way. T...
Better Aging,Better Care-Exploring Solutions for an Aging Europe
More than 100 participants from regions across Europe gathered at the joint workshop ” Better Aging, Better Care ” organised by Intel and AGE in Brussels in October 2007. The event was held during the European Week of Regions and Cities. The debate focused on one of the most pressing issues of our time: how will we care for our aging population? Therefore, social inclusion, financial issues and...
E-Health Standards and Interoperability
Under the auspices of Member of the European Parliament Milan Cabrnoch, MD, a Seminar on e-Health Standards and Interoperability was held on October 15 at the European Parliament, Brussels. In his opening speech, Dr Cabrnoch stated that only efficient and interoperable e-Health tools and services could fulfill needs and demands of European citizens. Furthermore, he expressed a sincere appreciation fo...
The World Health Care Congress Europe, 2008
4th Edition, Berlin, 10/12 March 2008 Organised under the high patronage of the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of Health and presented for the 4th consecutive year, the World Health Care Congress Europe is the only major international forum where over 600 health leaders share best practices and successful initiatives for improved delivery and outcomes in Europe. Participating...
EU Section
New Approach to Standardisation in the Internal Market
When talking about the Single Market, it should be mentioned that the New Approach and European standardisation have contributed significantly to its development. The facilitation of free movement of goods (healthcare included) between Member States comes as a consequence of the success achieving by the European standardisation system in removing technical barriers to trade. With the removal of tarif...
Status of the European Health Insurance Card
The European Health Insurance Card came into being as a political project initiated by the European Commission with the support of the Barcelona European Council 2002. The main idea behind such a project was to replace all the paper forms needed at the time to obtain health care during a temporary stay in a Member State other than the one in which the insurance was held (i.e. forms E110, E111, E128, E119)....
Cover Story
The Clinical Information System
At the Heart of Healthcare IT Author Jos Aarts is with theInstitute of Health Policyand Management, ErasmusMedical...
Tribulations of Working With a Clinical Information System
It is Interoperable … Author GurpreetDhillon is Professor of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University, US. One Friday evening, my son insisted on riding his bicycle. I tried convincing him that that road was slippery, that he had to have his supper and that I was tired, but to no avail. Barely had he begun having fun when his cycle went out of control and he fell, breaking...
CIS: A Longstanding Debate
Author Tosh Sheshabalaya HITM The debate about the role and reliability of clinical information systems (CIS) goes back several years. As far back as 1994, a British Medical Journal editorial entitled ‘Are clinical information systems safe ?’ portrayed a series of high-profile failures (which entailed physical harm to patients), and raised some disturbing questions. These included the...
Product Comparison Chart
Hospital Material Management Information System
ECRI Institute Europe Weltech Centre Ridgeway Welwyn Garden City Herts AL7 2AA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1707 871511 Fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 [email protected] www.ecri.org.uk ECRI Institute, a non-profit organisation, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research in healthcare to uncover the best approaches to improving patient care. As pioneers in thi...
Features
The 21st Century Digital Hospital
Author Massimiliano Clapsis Research Director, EMEA, for the Government and HealthInsights practice at IDC. The Western Europe healthcare sector is dealing with different "inconvenient truths".The...
The Broad Band Challenge for Isolated Communities
Effective e-Health in isolated communities is clearly dependent on access to broadband infrastructure. Currently, terrestrial technologies like ADSL or cable modem are available for a significant number of Europeans, at competitive prices. But there are challenges. According to a European Space Agency study in December 2005, broadband coverage ranges from 90-98% of the territory of most northern and we...
Healthcare and Big IT
Healthcare has, in recent years, been at the front of a feverish pace of technological change. However, the bulk of such developments have been in the areas of patient therapy and care. Innovations in the area of IT systems have been less apparent. And yet, it is IT which – at the moment, lurking just below the horizon – offers the greatest promise in its potential to enhance the effective delivery of...
Electronic Health Record
Author ToshSheshabalaya Hitm Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are digitised versions of patient health data, both historical and current. They include personal demographic information, data on vaccinations, prescribed medications, treatment histories and progress – alongside laboratory and radiology information, diagnostic photographs (e.g from minimally-invasive devices such as endoscopes), allerg...
Remote Data Replication
Making a Virtue of Necessity In the previous issue of Healthcare IT Management, we noticed the growing compulsions faced by hospital IT managers to ensure successful backups of their data – especially in the face of the expected acceleration in data creation as a result of modernisation and e-Health programmes. One strategic approach to the issue of disaster management and business continuity involves...
Management
Six Sigma
Healthcare And Six Sigma Author William LaFollette currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Six Sigma can reduce defects in services to unprecedented levels because of its strong emphasis on statistical analysis and measurement in design, manufacturing, and the entire area of patient-oriented activities. It is obvious applying Six Sigma has impacts...
Managing Change in Healthcare
The Senior Leader's Nondeleable Role Author Chip Caldwell is president of Chip Caldwell &Associates, and is the NorthernFlorida Regent of the...
Videoconferencing
New Technologies Hold Promise to Revolutionise e-Health Author Tosh Sheshabalaya HITM The convergence of voice and images has long been a Holy Grail of the IT and telecoms industry. So far, a swathe of initiatives have led to a hotchpotch of mixed results. True-blue, real-time videoconferencing, to many critics, remained as elusive a goal as the paperless office. There was a chasm between the �...
Country Focus: Switzerland
Healthcare in Switzerland
The healthcare system in Switzerland is a complex combination of public care, subsidised private and wholly privatised healthcare. The share of public spending, however, is one of Europe’s lowest – reflecting the fact that Swiss law earmarks the State’s role as a healthcare guarantor only when the private sector “fails to produce satisfactory results”. Not surprisingly, on a per capita basis, Swi...
IT and Swiss Healthcare
E-Health is rapidly emerging at centre-stage in Switzerland’s healthcare IT agenda. Last June, the Federal Council approved a National e-Health Strategy for the years 2007 to 2015. The strategy is based on a proposal from the Federal Office of Public Health, and follows extensive consultations with a range of concerned parties. One key element of the Swiss e-Health strategy is the recognition that...
Healthcare and IT policy in Switzerland
Known for its intensely confederal system of politics and decision-making, Switzerland has nevertheless recently began to coordinate its e-Health initiatives on a national level. Alongside, it is also opening up to new European and international e-Health standards. To obtain an overview of policymaker’s perspectives on healthcare and IT in Switzerland, HITM’s Catalina Ciolan interviewed Adrian Schmid f...