Client Forum HINE
Health Information Network Europe (HINE) has launched an on-line information service for the Healthcare IT supplier market, which it hopes to develop into the gold standard of market information in this sector in Europe. HBS Consulting was chosen to provide the key content project for this venture, after a referral of one of the leading industry sponsors of HINE. HBS Consulting interviewed Murray Bywater, who is heading the development of this venture.
Murray Bywater
What is Health Information Network Europe and how did it get started?
Health Information Network Europe (HINE) is a new style of market information service, funded by subscription and specialising only in Healthcare IT. HINE was started by Deloitte Belgium and Silicon Bridge Research in the UK following their successful collaboration on a pilot eHealth research project supported by the UK Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) in 2000.
The initial concept for a European service was launched as part of the HINE project, running from August 2001 to September 2003, with support from the European Commission and 20 leading industry sponsors. The objective was to meet the need for reliable and consistent market information on which to base planning decisions for eHealth evolution in Europe. HINE is now fully operational as a self funded commercial service for 2004, run by Deloitte from Brussels in cooperation with Silicon Bridge.
What services does HINE provide to its subscribers?
HINE provides a range of services geared to companies interested in emerging markets for Healthcare IT products and services across Europe. Annual subscriptions vary from 5,000 to 35,000 depending on the selected range of service options. These include a variety of different research reports segmented by healthcare user community and strategic topic, plus specific market profiles for individual European countries.
HINE also provides a supporting programme of national road shows, strategic workshops and promotional events. HINE subscribers benefit from many different networking events and associated opportunities for lobbying and corporate recognition. HINE reports are available either in conventional printed format or via comprehensive distribution capabilities on the HINE website.
How does HINE see the eHealth market progressing in the next 5 years?
The eHealth market is set for explosive growth driven by global market pressures and burgeoning new technologies in IT, telecommunications and medical devices. HINE research indicates a potential fourfold growth during the current decade, but there will be considerable confusion and uncertainty as the market restructures itself over the next five years. There are already masses of innovative eHealth technologies becoming available, but significant market growth is being restrained due to lack of comprehensive infrastructure facilities that can be shared by whole health communities. These facilities are needed to provide the platform from which to create rapid expansion in the deployment of eHealth solutions.
Which specific market areas look most promising for growth?
The most significant immediate opportunities lie in the areas of shared electronic records for integrating care delivery across different health communities and the use of smart medical or diagnostic devices for near patient testing and provision of consumer friendly home care services. In addition, we expect patient safety to rise rapidly up the European agenda. This will result in Government backed demand for more effective prescribing and medication management, making use of electronic order communication, results reporting and clinical decision support. These facilities, which will be required in primary and secondary settings, will enable further integration of the supply chain together with more extensive use of smart packaging for unit dose pharmaceuticals.
What will be the likely impact of the UK National Programme for IT?
The UK IT industry is just beginning to emerge from two years of the deepest recession in its history. Relatively few significant commercial contracts have been placed in the private sector, and IT service companies have had to rely heavily on Government contracts for business. This tough environment, together with the potential for £5billion of new sales in the English National Health Service, has enabled the English NHS National Programme for IT to negotiate a number of very large, high-level contracts with prime contractors for implementation of key national infrastructure and strategic applications together with rollout of the National Care Records Service.
There is still some confusion regarding exactly how much money will accrue to these contracts and from which specific funding sources. However it is generally agreed that this programme represents a major step change in Healthcare IT procurement and that the market in England is going through a fundamental and irreversible upheaval as a direct result.
Is the UK strategy going to be followed in other European countries?
Opinions are divided about how the National Programme will turn out in the long term, but it is interesting to note that the strategic direction accurately reflects many of the high level trends beginning to emerge in the global market for Healthcare IT. In this sense we can be sure that most European countries will follow a similar direction over the coming years, but not necessarily replicating the English National Programme in every respect, particularly the overall scale and degree of central control. For most other countries the question of how to achieve effective clinical change management assumes a higher priority than has been apparent so far in the NHS.
It remains to be seen how effective the NHS policy of central direction will be in ensuring the support of clinicians. Whatever the eventual outcome, the rest of Europe is watching with great interest and will be keen to learn from the lessons of the NHS National Programme. The Nordic region (particularly Denmark), Germany and Spain are all examples of different national approaches to the provision of high level shared infrastructure support.
Which emerging technologies will have most short and medium term impact?
This is a difficult question to answer, particularly in light of the speed of evolution of new technologies. However, it is clear that the key strategic thrust is towards provision of shared care facilities in an integrated community environment. In this context, we expect to see major impact from mobile and wireless technologies - plus the pervasive use of remote diagnostic or testing devices at the point of care.
Another big-ticket item will be the use of advanced barcode labelling in conjunction with blister packaging to provide foolproof labelling and tracking of unit medication doses. Clearly, recent rapid advances in web technologies will also offer huge benefits in facilitating wider use of knowledge enabled IT solutions and clinical decision support.
How can the HINE European Hospital Census assist subscribers with business planning?
Healthcare is the biggest single untapped global market for IT products and services. Growth has been slower than expected and the predicted massive expansion of eHealth got lost in the dotcom fallout. This has only been a temporary set back, and we expect to see eHealth emerging again as a major marketmega trend during this decade as Governments take action to ensure that required infrastructure support is available on which to build new transformational eHealth applications. Hospitals will be a key part of associated virtual healthcare networks which are already beginning to emerge and which will be central to new forms of healthcare delivery. The equipping of hospitals to meet the needs of eHealth is therefore essential for ensuring significant progress with eHealth evolution. Hospitals still represent by far the biggest single sector of the healthcare IT market. However progress towards eHospital capabilities has been painfully slow, and European Governments are concerned about how to speed up the evolutionary process as part of the move towards eHealth. This state of affairs means high political visibility and even higher market opportunity for key eHealth solution components in acute general hospitals. The HINE eHospital Study aims to address the unknowns in this market sector and provide managers with the necessary information to make effective strategic planning decisions.
Market timing is of the utmost importance, and the European Hospital Census being conducted by HBS Consulting for HINE will provide a unique benchmark calibration of the current status and future eHealth opportunities in 900 hospitals across 14 different countries. Information distilled from this census will be used as input to four follow up studies focusing on BPR, Mobile Computing, Clinical Infrastructure Support and Electronic Prescribing. Findings from these and other HINE activities will be incorporated into a top level European eHospital Status Report, for publication late in 2004. HINE subscribers will therefore have unique one stop access to practical and well-researched strategic market information on which to base their plans for eHealth in Europe.
Note: More information is available on the HINE website at www.hineurope.com or from the HINE marketing team on +32 2 800 28 28.