Study advises EC on e-health models
- 3 June 2010
A study to evaluate business models for e-health in Europe has made a series of policy recommendations for the European Commission to follow to improve the quality and efficiency of e-health services.
The study, which was funded by the ICT for health unit of the European Commission’s DG Information Society and coordinated by RAND Europe in partnership with Capgemini Consulting, used semi-structured interviews with European experts in the field of e-health.
It also examined five case studies of value-creating and sustainable e-health systems in Europe.
The responsibilities identified for the EC include: fostering the sharing of specific best practice for the design of value-creating and sustainable business models for e-health systems; defining benchmarking parameters to ensure that individual organisations are able to monitor and compare the way they develop and implement business models for e-health; and ensuring legal clarity.
Other recommendations include tax breaks or a form of reimbursement to support best practice development. The report also highlights the importance of facilitating market developments through interoperability, technical standards and pre-procurement activities.
The study says the European e-health market was estimated at €14.3 billion in 2008 and is projected to reach €15.6 billion by 2012, with a compound annual growth of 2.9%.
It says France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are all principal European e-health markets, but that over the next three years all national e-health markets will experience some form of growth.
Capgemini predicts that there will be a major shift from secondary usage systems to clinical information systems as a result of the need to support operational processes. It says that clinical information systems and integrated health clinical information networks will be responsible for around 80% of e-health market growth 2008-12.
It concludes that in order to “tap into this potential” e-health services have to create value for all stakeholders by devising appropriate supporting business models.
It adds: “Failing to do so will just create a situation where healthcare professionals and institutions would lose trust in these solutions and, as a consequence, refrain from exploiting the positive externalities brought about by these e-health systems and solutions.”
Link: Business models for e-health
