Health care systems globally, and in the European Union in particular, have been evolving and adapting the last couple of years to the impact of an ageing population and to epidemiological changes in the context of fiscal restraints. There is an increasing trend towards integrated care with the linking up of the range of healthcare facilities including primary care and diagnostic centres, acute care hospitals and clinics. The situation is further enhanced by increased patient mobility, especially within Europe, and an increased expectation from the general public to have better services and a more customer-friendly healthcare.

 

In this light, healthcare organizations are constantly trying to ensure high degrees of efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of their services. An overriding priority in many EU countries remains the full implementation of Healthcare Information Systems, especially in the light of the new European environment for e-Health and the increased cooperation between EU Member States on this matter. This has created a clear interest to accelerate the transformation of clinical care so that clinicians will routinely use appropriate information systems technologies when diagnosing problems and subsequently planning and administering care to a patient.

Across Europe, stakeholders and decision-makers have now come to realise the importance of the clinical, organizational, and financial benefits directly resulting from the implementation of healthcare information technologies. Although, disparate healthcare systems, payer mechanisms, languages and clinical/treatment protocols have retarded a more uniform systems adoption, healthcare IT is increasingly being placed high on the political agenda of most European governments.

The Need for Information Systems
One of the many definitions of Healthcare information technology is “the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of healthcare information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision-making”.

Today, healthcare executives are under tremendous pressure to address a host of different challenges: medical errors, rising costs, inconsistent quality, inefficiency, declining doctor satisfaction, and mounting staff shortages. Dealing with these issues will ultimately lead to better healthcare, but the process appears as complex and overwhelming as the challenges themselves. Information – or lack of it – is a big part of today’s healthcare problems. Accordingly, Information Technology should be a big part of the solution.

In theory, the whole concept seems quite simple: we should be able to accurately record detailed and legible clinical notes; populate a comprehensive, lifetime digital record for every patient (including medication history, lab tests, and radiology images); provide access to disease management and outcomes information to help doctors make clinical decisions; prevent medical errors by having complete patient histories on hand, and so on.

Yet in practice, only a small percentage of doctors are actually using such technologies daily and it's not hard to understand why. Historically, healthcare IT systems have been too expensive and hard to implement for the average provider organization to adopt. They didn’t fit in with typical workflows and, there was very little evidence demonstrating the value of specific Healthcare IT investments. Fortunately, as the healthcare IT industry matures, this is all changing.