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Multiple Advantages Underline the Growing Importance of Integration Strategies in the European Healthcare IT Markets

08 Jan 2010 - There is significant potential for system integration markets across Western Europe. Several multinational companies have been venturing into integration solutions for the European healthcare market. Achieving multiple and concurrent access to the same data and the existence of heterogeneous systems remain some of the most significant challenges to integration.
 
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Integration Strategies in the Fragmented Healthcare IT Markets in Europe, finds that the expenditure on IT services by the healthcare service providers in Europe constitutes 20 per cent on application management, 45 per cent on infrastructure management and 35.0 per cent on integration services.
 
"Integrated systems offer several advantages to the healthcare services arena such as better medical data management, cost-effective service delivery and, patient-centric healthcare,” notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst S. Priyan. "Other benefits include enhanced security and confidentiality of medical data, improved quality of healthcare service and patient safety.”
 
Apart from the direct benefits of integrated systems, they also assist in the better management of healthcare resources. This has a direct impact on the quality of healthcare service delivered. Healthcare service providers are empowered to make more-informed decisions with lower fatal errors, reduce delays in diagnoses and referrals and avoid repetitive data entries and procedures.
 
Several authorised users, especially in a large hospital, may try to access or modify healthcare data in the system simultaneously. At the same time, several applications or departments could access the same data. Similarly, many healthcare information technology (HIT) systems vary by functionality and depth of operations or have hardware capabilities built on several technologies. This presents a challenge to effective healthcare IT integration.
 
"The enormous amount of unstructured, yet sensitive data and the need to maintain its security has been one of the biggest challenges to the healthcare IT market,” remarks Priyan.
 
The volume of medical data is enormous and still mounting. Such data includes personal patient information, medical history, insurance and financial information, radiology and PACS images and laboratory results. In structuring this mass of data, making it understandable and enabling it to interact with other systems, HIT vendors will have to strive to strike a balance between expense and margins.
 
"In general, processing and managing healthcare data and functions across integrated systems can help the healthcare sector handle challenges, such as increasing costs, shortage of skilled professional staff,” states Priyan. "It can also satisfy regulatory requirements while managing the increasing burden of chronic diseases and rising patient expectations, effectively.”
 
Improved, universal adoption of integrated systems in the healthcare sector in Europe would not only influence the overall expenses of the healthcare setup directly and positively but also the quality of healthcare delivery.