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Emphasis on patient safety to spur demand for IT solutions in French healthcare industry(Science Letter Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The increasing need to enhance patient safety and provide high-quality, cost-effective healthcare has contributed to the rising demand for IT systems (particularly clinical information systems) in the French healthcare industry. The increasing use of IT in the healthcare sector is anticipated to help avoid medical errors, improve decision-making processes, minimize patients' exposure to unnecessary ionizing radiation and reduce the duration of treatment and hospitalization, thereby ensuring high-quality patient care. The shift in focus from administrative systems modules to clinical systems (such as picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), order entry systems and electronic medical records (EMR)) to improve healthcare delivery processes, used in tandem with the latest technologies in diagnostics and treatment modalities, is likely to further drive the demand for IT solutions. "These systems prevent wasteful duplication of costly investigations, treatments and drug prescriptions, apart from preventing adverse events which may prolong the length of stay in hospitals and thereby increase costs," said Siddharth Saha, program manager - healthcare IT, at Frost & Sullivan. As the stakeholders in the industry (which include health authorities, the hospital management and payer organizations) increasingly acknowledge the importance of IT solutions, the demand for IT applications in healthcare management is expected to increase. Additionally, the mounting need for efficient management of voluminous clinical data will fuel the demand for IT applications. The availability of scalable IT solutions to suit different requirements is boosting their acquisition by the healthcare industry. Vendors are providing customized implementation strategies involving workflow re-engineering using highly flexible solutions that can be integrated with existing modalities and systems, thereby further spurring the demand for IT applications. The implementation of the activity-based funding system in 2004, which is driving hospitals to optimize their patient information systems will further lead to increased acquisition of IT systems. Supported by these trends, the French healthcare IT market is projected to increase from US$726.0 million in 2004 to US$1,034.0 million in 2008. While IT applications are proving to be beneficial, obtaining government buy-in into an integrated healthcare IT network plan and assuring justifiable returns on healthcare IT investments are proving to be difficult. Further, decision makers in the French healthcare industry as well as the Ministry and the departments of health are confronted with the need to overcome budgetary deficits. The procedure followed by public sector hospitals, to invite European tenders for IT investments above a certain level, is resulting in the slow implementation of IT applications. "Moreover, there is no definite budgetary allocation and, therefore, targeting the private sector is an easier prospect, as there is no involvement of regulatory bodies," advises Saha. Presently, there exists a clear need for implementing healthcare IT standards, as they will stimulate competition and reduce costs, permitting healthcare institutions to establish low-entry systems and gradually build up large-scale IT solutions. Besides this, standardized products will improve compatibility among medical applications and systems by allowing products from multiple vendors to exchange medical information. Standardized products are also easily replaceable and pose less risk when compared to proprietary solutions. "The French healthcare IT industry offers good potential for EMR systems both for hospitals and primary care, as well as for an intelligent order entry system that allows the monitoring of resources used during patient care," said Saha. "The implementation of integrated solutions linking primary care centers, hospitals and the patients through smart technologies is also likely to rise." Legacy systems, patient administrative systems (PAS), primary care health records systems, picture archiving systems (PACS) and radiology information systems (RIS) are also expected to enjoy an increase in demand. In this highly fragmented competitive market, partnerships or joint ventures with companies in a niche segment will help complement existing product lines to create a more complete product portfolio and thereby gain competitive success. This article was prepared by Science Letter editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2006, Science Letter via NewsRx.com. |