Expert Views

Share Your Good Practices in eHealth

Baudouin Lejeune is a Healthcare IT consultant, expert and project manager involved in eHealth market research and strategic studies for several private companies, public authorities and healthcare providers. He is one of the founder consultants of the Brussels-based Health Information Network Europe (HINE), which since 2001 has been led by Deloitte. HINE provides practical market information to the IT industry and helps shape how eHealth is dealt with in Europe.

Despite the relatively slow diffusion of eHealth in Europe, a wide variety of innovative eHealth applications have been successfully implemented. They constitute a source of valuable experience and of examples of good practices which to date have not yet been properly communicated for emulation and exploitation.

For political, clinical, managerial and health professional decision makers to commit themselves to implement eHealth services, and for patients and citizens to use them for their own and their families' care, it is important that every one of these stakeholder groupings is convinced of the concrete benefits they will receive.

“Documenting, qualifying and sharing the added value that eHealth delivers to each stakeholder group will have a strong impact on its acceptance not only by health authorities, but also by health professionals and most importantly by citizens,” says Lejeune.

Submit your Good eHealth practice cases

Disseminating good practices is also a key issue of the European Commission eHealth Action Plan (2004)¹. It allows for sharing of experiences gained in the implementation and use of eHealth services across EU Member States.

The Exchange of Good Practices in eHealth (Good eHealth) study, commissioned by the European Commission DG Information Society and Media and coordinated by Deloitte Belgium in partnership with empirica, develops a sophisticated approach to assess proven applications, builds a comprehensive case study database, and supports learning experiences through a series of targeted workshops.

In the Good eHealth study, eHealth applications ranging from a hospital system to cross-border services and their economic results are presented. Empirical evidence on their impacts and lessons learned will be synthesised. The ultimate aim is to achieve a multiplier effect, motivating others to follow suit.

“In the framework of this very important study, you are invited to submit your Good eHealth practice cases,” says Lejeune. “If you have implemented or are aware of an eHealth solution which may qualify for inclusion in the European Commission's Good eHealth database, please do not hesitate to offer yourself as a candidate.” This can be done at http://www.good-ehealth.org/knowledge_base/self-candidate.html. 

Seminar at WHIT ’07 in Vienna

Moreover, Deloitte and empirica will present an upbeat view of the Good eHealth study during a half-day workshop at the upcoming World of Health IT Conference and Exhibition in Vienna. The consortium for the Good eHealth project, together with the European Commission, will organise a public workshop in Vienna on Monday, 22 October from 2.00 pm till 6.00 pm.

It will address how to enhance hospitals and help them meet their business challenges in terms of quality of care and patient safety, access to care and more economic efficiency. It will particularly highlight good practices in the field of Master Patient Index; advanced hospital EPR; order communication and medical document management; ePrescribing; electronic links with GPs; mobile and wireless connected technology; and internal infrastructure and technology standards.

Lejeune adds that the workshop will be complemented by a market review of the state of art in this field with a view to answering this important question: are Europe’s hospitals ready for eHealth?

For further information, visit the Good eHealth website at http://www.good-ehealth.org/documents/eHealth_brochure.pdf or check results and achievements by visiting the project website at http://www.good-ehealth.org.

¹ http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/policy_action_plan/index_en.htm