The European e-Business Report 2004 - Berlecon Research GmbH

The European E-Business Report 2004ActivitiesResultsInitially, general practitioners were the pivotal point in communications, whichprimarily passed between medical practices, hospitals, laboratories andpharmacies. Then local authorities joined in and became an important partner inhome care and other areas. Messages in the form of prescriptions, laboratoryresults, X-ray results, discharge letters etc. were exchanged in steadily increasingnumbers. Telemedicine applications were added. The Internet opened up newopportunities both in relation to including patients and for the dialogue amongsthealthcare professionals. By linking together existing secure Intranets, MedCom hasestablished a healthcare Internet, known as HealthcareDIX (Sundheds-DIX) viaVPN connections to VPN nodes. At the same time, MedCom IV has beenconcerned with the expansion and quality assurance of EDI communications(including securing interoperability amongst various standards), as well as thedevelopment and implementation of communication to and from electronic patientrecords. Planning is underway to expand activities beyond the Nordic Countries intosome of the 10 new Member States.• Improved access to and quality of care: The health network and MedComstandards have made electronic patient booking and GP prescription renewalpossible. Certain telemedicine services have been implemented, andteleconferencing has been carried out.• Professionals' access to the specialists' evaluations has been improved, as hasthe prompt access to examination reports. Fast, complete and valid informationregarding the whole period of care is the most important benefit. Electroniccommunication enables direct reuse of data and automatic validation of dataprior to sending it.• The Danish National Health Portal (One Portal for Citizens and Professionals)enables communications and services between health professionals andcitizens. The portal also provides facilities for citizens to book appointments withGPs, conduct e-mail consultations with their GP and renew their prescriptions.• Cost benefits: Several studies confirmed significant benefits for patients andfinancial savings. Through gains in efficiency, more time has become availablefor the care and treatment of patients. Financial benefits due to improvedcommunication flows were estimated at the level of about 84 m Euro.• MedCom is a key European example for the stepwise, bottom-up developmentof a national health communications network providing for the integration andco-operation of a wide variety of health and care systems actors.NHS PURCHASING AND SUPPLY AGENCY (UNITED KINGDOM)BackgroundActivitiesThe National Health Services Purchasing and Supply Agency works with 400 NHStrusts and health authorities, manages 3,000 national purchasing contracts,influencing around half of the 7bn sterling spent in the NHS on goods and services.The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency is a national centre of expertise inpurchasing and supply matters for the health service, and an advisory and coordinatingbody impacting on procurement policy and modernising purchasing andsupply. More than 100 NHS organisations and over 40,000 healthcare professionalsin more than 300 hospitals use the EROS eProcurement system which is vital tosuccessful supply chain engineering. EROS automates the purchasing process,minimising manual intervention and paperwork Purchasing teams within the Agencysupport NHS Logistics in purchasing products, proposing selling prices andmanaging data for the 40,000 product lines that appear in its catalogue.181