ICT Standards in the Health Sector: Current Situation and Prospects

ICT Standards in the Health Sector: Current Situation and ProspectsThis new study about ICT standards in the health sector by empirica provides a structured overview of eHealth standards development and uptake in a European context, paying special attention to standards for electronic health records. The study was commissioned by the European Commission's Directorate General Enterprise and Industry and explores the current status of ICT health standardisation processes and their future potential. Key findings include the following:
  • There is a lack of widely used eHealth standards, resulting in interoperability problems. Many of the conflicting standards are proprietary.
  • There is also a lack of the "right" e-health standards. The health sector is in need of effective standards developed specifically for particular applications and concrete cases.
  • For health service providers, this situation may imply that their computerised systems remain stand-alone and unable to exchange data with each other in-house or externally. In particular, solutions for electronic health records are often isolated without data exchange and interoperability.

The study also discusses the economic implications of a lack of common standards in the health sector and the ensuing policy implications. It proposes to increasingly involve ICT industry, national governments and ICT users in the development of a more confined and harmonised number of well-developed standards. Considering recent developments in the US, the European Commission and the Member States may be well advised to develop a common strategy and roadmap for e-health standards development.

Combining an international online survey of eHealth experts, expert interviews and literature evaluation, the study delivers a comprehensive review of eHealth standards and the main players in the field. Five principal standard development organisations, a promising open source initiative and a major interoperability initiative have been selected for detailed analysis in the report, as they can be expected to play a leading role in the sector's future.

empirica's study aims at contributing to the economic and social benefits which are likely to arise from opening up the huge and largely untapped market for health information systems in Europe. Improved interoperability is expected to allow for ICT health systems which significantly help to improve the quality of collaborative healthcare, reduce patient risks, transaction costs and expenditure of time. Moreover, citizens will benefit from faster, more widely accessible and more efficient healthcare.

Download ICT Standards in the Health Sector: Current Situation and Prospects Study (.pdf, 840 KB).

Download from the eHealthNews.EU Portal's mirror: ICT Standards in the Health Sector: Current Situation and Prospects Study (.pdf, 840 KB).

For information on other empirica eHealth research and studies, please visit:
http://www.empirica.biz/themen/telemedizin/projekte_en.php

Related news articles:

About empirica
empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH (empirica) has many years of experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Its clients are private companies and public bodies: large and medium-sized companies in the insurance, pharmaceutical and automobile industries as well as software developers and hardware manufacturers. There are also telecommunications service companies and network providers, social services firms, medical facilities, Federal and State Government ministries in Germany and the European Commission as well as the European statistical office (Eurostat). For further information, please visit www.empirica.com.

Most Popular Now

Generative AI's Diagnostic Capabili…

The use of generative AI for diagnostics has attracted attention in the medical field and many research papers have been published on this topic. However, because the evaluation criteria were...

Diagnoses and Treatment Recommendations …

A new study led by Prof. Dan Zeltzer, a digital health expert from the Berglas School of Economics at Tel Aviv University, compared the quality of diagnostic and treatment recommendations...

New System for the Early Detection of Au…

A team from the Human-Tech Institute-Universitat Politècnica de València has developed a new system for the early detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The...

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust g…

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has marked an important milestone in connecting busy radiologists across large parts of South East England, following the successful go live of Sectra's enterprise...

AI Tool Helps Predict Relapse of Pediatr…

Artificial intelligence (AI) shows tremendous promise for analyzing vast medical imaging datasets and identifying patterns that may be missed by human observers. AI-assisted interpretation of brain scans may help improve...

Detecting Lung Cancer 4 Months Earlier a…

GPs may soon be able to identify patients with an increased risk of lung cancer up to 4 months earlier than is currently the case. The GP should be able...

Infectious Disease Surveillance Platform…

The Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON) leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs) and a network of globally based experts to rapidly collect, analyze, and disseminate...

Children's Health Ireland to Transf…

Healthcare teams responsible for paediatric care in Ireland are to save significant time in accessing important diagnostic imaging and reports, with the help of a new agreement with medical imaging...

An AI Tool Grounded in Evidence-Based Me…

A powerful clinical artificial intelligence tool developed by University at Buffalo biomedical informatics researchers has demonstrated remarkable accuracy on all three parts of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (Step...

AI-Powered Analysis of Stent Healing

Each year, more than three million people worldwide are treated with stents to open blocked blood vessels caused by heart disease. However, monitoring the healing process after implantation remains a...

Right Patient, Right Dose, Right Time

While artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promising potential, much of its use has remained theoretical or retrospective. Turning its potential into real-world healthcare outcomes, researchers at the Yong Loo Lin...

NHS, Councils, and Housing could Share N…

A new technology partnership formally announced, could help NHS, local government, and housing organisations collaborate to create an unprecedented understanding of the risks and needs of people in their care...