The European Commission has put out a tender for a study for benchmarking e-health deployments internationally.
The call is for a study to progress towards the development of a standardised survey on the adoption of ICT and e-health solutions in hospitals.
The tender specification states: “The objective of the study is to measure the adoption and use of ICT and e-health solutions by medical staff in hospitals, both for administrative and clinical processes, in order to develop a better understanding of the current level of digitisation and of its effectiveness.
“In particular, the study should evaluate the contribution of ICT to the overall efficiency of hospitals, also in terms of a better quality of healthcare delivery.”
The study will be based on a survey of medical staff in all EU countries, Norway, Iceland and Croatia and forms part of the European Commission’s i2010 strategy to create a European Information Society for growth and employment.
The i2010 strategy proposes a strategic framework, lays out policy orientations to promote an open and competitive digital economy and emphasises ICT as a driver of inclusion and quality of life.
The initiative includes achieving an Inclusive European Information Society, as part of which e-health is as a priority.
This will be the third e-health benchmarking study commissioned by the European Commission. The first study focused on the use of ICT by general practitioners in Europe, Iceland and Norway.
The second collected and analysed existing e-health monitoring and benchmarking sources in Europe and beyond, identified good practices in data gathering and developed an indicator framework for an EU-wide quantitative benchmarking
The deadline for those wanting to be considered for this study is the 10 August 2009 and opening offers will begin on the 19 August.
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